Governor Rick Scott 'strongly recommended' that FAMU President James Ammons be suspended

Video
Photo

FAMU President James Ammons
Photographer: FAMU
Copyright 2011 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Regular Photo Size

Posted: 12/15/2011

By: CNN Wire Staff

(CNN) -- Florida Gov. Rick Scott "has strongly recommended" that the trustees of Florida A&M University suspend "effective immediately" the school's president in the wake of alleged hazing and "financial irregularities," the governor's office announced Thursday.

Scott told the chairman of FAMU's board of trustees, Solomon Badger, that he felt the board should suspend university President James Ammons when it meets next Monday, the statement said. The governor also "placed a call" to Ammons to notify him of these conversations.

Jerry Bailey, commissioner of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, said Wednesday that authorities looking into the unexplained death of FAMU drum major Robert Champion -- after he'd allegedly been hazed -- had found evidence of "financial irregularities having to do with the band and several other components of the university."

The suspected fraud is not directly related to Champion's death last month, Bailey said.

The-CNN-Wire/Atlanta/+1-404-827-WIRE(9473)
™ & © 2011 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.