NATION : Florida Ex-Tax Chief Sentenced

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida’s former top tax collector pleaded no contest today to a charge of attempted official misconduct and was sentenced to a year’s probation.

Katie Tucker also agreed to pay $500 in court costs. She resigned from her job as state Revenue Department director in February in the face of certain dismissal.

Circuit Judge F. E. Steinmeyer III modified the probation to allow Tucker, 46, to carry out her duties as a reserve officer in the Coast Guard.

Tucker had been charged with misconduct by falsifying documents, a third-degree felony that carries a maximum five-year prison sentence. The misdemeanor charge to which she pleaded no contest could have meant a year in jail.

The charge stemmed from a state investigation into whether she had singled out the businesses owned by Donald G. Resha for auditing. Resha lost a 1985 race for the presidency of the state AFL-CIO to Tucker’s husband.