Fla. City Official Resigns, Kills Self [View All]

[Ghost in the Machine]

Fla. City Official Resigns, Kills Self
Published: 9/7/07, 10:05 PM EDT

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) - A city councilman apparently committed suicide Friday, hours after he resigned amid allegations that he sexually abused two teenage girls and a woman, authorities said.

John Bryan, 56, was found by a reporter for the St. Petersburg Times, slumped in a golf cart in the garage of his home in Floral City. Paramedics pronounced him dead, said Citrus County Sheriff's spokeswoman Gail Tierney.

A riding lawn mower was running and two nearby four-wheelers also appeared to have been running but were out of gas. Officers found a suicide note in the house, but Tierney did not know what it said.

Bryan was being investigated on suspicion of sexually abusing three females, said Ron Stuart, spokesman for the Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Court.

Earlier Friday, Bryan had acknowledged in court a sexual relationship with a young woman, but he said that it was consensual and that she was 18, Stuart said. At the hearing, Bryan agreed not to have contact with the suspected teenage victims.

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