ORLANDO, Fla. -- Mayor Buddy Dyer was suspended Friday after he, a judge and two others surrendered on felony charges that they violated a state law prohibiting payments for the collection of absentee ballots. A defense attorney denied the allegations.

Dyer, Circuit Judge Alan Apte, Dyer's campaign manager Patti Sharp and campaign consultant Ezzie Thomas are charged with violating a law enacted after Miami's 1998 mayoral election was thrown out because of fraud committed in the collection of absentee ballots. A grand jury indicted them Thursday.

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Dyer, Apte and Sharp all declined comment Friday as they left the Orange County Jail after being booked on one count of providing pecuniary gain for absentee ballot possession or collection. Thomas was charged with accepting pecuniary gain for absentee ballot possession or collection. Both are third-degree felonies punishable by up to five years in prison.

But Sharp's attorney, Bill Sheaffer, said the defendants committed no crimes.

He said the indictment "is the result of a number of circumstances that have created an imperfect storm. The circumstances being powerful political operatives, witnesses who have not told the truth and a rogue grand jury that does not have the ability to discern the truth."

Dean Mosley, Thomas' attorney, said that just because his client was indicted doesn't necessarily mean he will be prosecuted. Thomas and his attorney said they were surprised by the indictment.

"You have to have intent to commit a crime," Mosley said. "My client never had any intent to commit any crime."

The grand jury had been investigating whether absentee ballots were illegally collected by a Thomas for the campaigns of Dyer and Apte before last year's election. Special prosecutor Brad King, who was brought in from Marion County, declined comment Friday, an aide said.

Later Friday, Gov. Jeb Bush suspended Dyer from office. Florida law allows the governor to suspend public officials charged with a felony until their case is decided and they are removed if convicted. It was not immediately known who will assume Dyer's duties.

The grand jury looked into allegations that Thomas illegally gathered absentee ballots in predominantly black neighborhoods.

Thomas was hired by Dyer's campaigns for Florida attorney general and Orlando mayor to perform get-out-the-vote activities. Thomas also has worked for some of central Florida's most prominent politicians, including now-U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez, when he was a local county official, and Secretary of State Glenda Hood, when she was mayor.

Dyer, a former state senator, was first elected mayor in a February 2003, filling in the remainder of Hood's term after she was appointed to state office.

Dyer has said that when he signed checks and approved invoices, worth about $10,000, for Thomas during his 2004 re-election campaign. But the documents did not say what Thomas was being paid to do and Dyer has said he didn't know, either.

Earlier this year, Dyer testified in a separate civil lawsuit deposition that he was not involved in field work with his campaign.

The civil lawsuit was brought by the runner-up in the mayoral race, Ken Mulvaney, who sued to have the election thrown out. Dyer won re-election by nearly 5,000 votes but cleared the threshold that triggers a runoff by only 234.

"I was mayor. I spent most of my time being mayor," Dyer said in the deposition. "I spent very little time actually on the campaign."

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