Judge to rule in about two weeks.

5:02 p.m. EDT, August 5, 2011

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/os-jim-greer-dismissal-hearing-20110805,0,6638659.story

Ousted Florida GOP chairman Jim Greer returned to court Friday and asked an Orlando judge to throw out the criminal charges against him and much of the evidence seized by state agents.

Circuit Judge Marc Lubet said he would rule in about two weeks.

Greer, 49, of Oviedo, sporting a mustache and goatee, sat between two attorneys and said nothing at the hearing. He's charged with six crimes: fraud, money laundering and four counts of theft.

Prosecutors allege Greer set up a shell company and used it to funnel more than $125,000 of party money into his personal bank accounts.

Defense attorney Cheney Mason told the judge Friday that what Greer did may have been unethical but it wasn't illegal.

As state party chairman, Greer hired Victory Strategies, a company he created in early 2009 and in which he owned a secret 60-percent interest. It would be the party's official fund raiser, keeping 10 percent of every major donation.

The case's lead investigator, Special Agent Travis Lawson of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, said Greer broke the law when he signed the party's contract with Victory Strategies without telling party executives he was part owner. That, said Lawson, was an early step in a scheme to defraud.

"I don't believe he had authority to enter a contract with himself," Lawson said.

Fundraising was already one of Greer's jobs, Lawson said.

And according to the agent, Victory Strategies committed four acts of outright theft, totaling $66,000, when it billed the party and received payment for polling and other work that was never done.

Greer's attorneys want all of the evidence seized from their client's Oviedo home thrown out. That includes lots of financial records – Greer's own and the party's – and information found on his computer.

Florida Supreme Court Justice Peggy Quince signed the warrant authorizing the search. Greer's attorneys claim that makes it invalid, that in Florida warrants are to be signed by county and circuit judges – not judges serving on appeal courts.