Ex-Bug Board Commish Cops Plea To Using Dead Man's ID To Score Double Homestead Exemption; Ordered To Cough Up $60K In Back Real Estate Taxes, Fines

The Florida Keys Keynoter reports:

• When all is said and done, former Florida Keys Mosquito Control Board Commissioner Charles Langstaff will end up paying more than $60,000 in back taxes for his homestead exemption fraud. Langstaff, 66, pleaded guilty Monday to the misdemeanor in Levy County and was ordered to pay more than $14,000 to that county.
• Langstaff, a commissioner from 1998 until 2010, admitted using the Social Security number of a dead Islamorada man to secure a homestead exemption on his Morriston property near Gainesville. He was a longtime employee at Beyer Funeral Home in Key Largo.

***

• [Levy County State Attorney's Office's lead investigator Spencer] Mann said Langstaff's agreement would settle only Levy County's lien against his Levy County property.
• According to the Monroe County Tax Collector's Office, Langstaff still has a $45,683 lien on his Key Largo home for claiming the exemption while he lived in Levy.
• [Monroe County] Tax Collector Danise Henriquez said her office filed the lien in both Levy and Monroe counties. [...] Henriquez added that Langstaff's homestead exemptions have been revoked from both of his properties. "He is going to have to file [for an exemption] wherever he is going to reside," she said.

For the story, see Former bug-board member in hole for $60,000.