Former Deerfield Beach Mayor Al Capellini was accused and then acquitted of taking $10,000 in "unlawful compensation."

The taxpayers' bill for his legal defense? It's about one hundred times that amount — more than a million bucks.

Attorney David Bogenshutz has sent Deerfield a seven-page, itemized bill laying out just where the $1,035,015.45 went. The city hasn't paid it yet, said city spokeswoman Rebecca Medina. The city commission will have approve the payment, she said.

Bogenshutz's bill says he worked on the case an average of 17 hours a month for five and a half years. And he charges $675 an hour.

His partner Ashley Dutko also put in 250 hours, at $175 an hour.

The bill also shows a $28,000 charge for Bogenshutz' eight days spent at trial, and costs of $153,265.40 the firm wants repaid. Those costs include a $60,000 deposit on legal services that Capellini paid in 2008 after he was first charged, and $13,527 in interest he paid because he took out a loan to pay that.

Under Florida law, cities are expected to pay the legal bills of officials accused of committing crimes in office.

The bill could've been a whole lot higher, Bogenshutz wrote in a cover letter to the bill he sent Mayor Jean Robb.

"In truth, the hours and time charged are extremely conservative and does not bill the normal hourly fees for paralegals and law clerks expended for the first three (3) years of this representation," he wrote.

It's a shame the city has to pay that much, considering the charge stemming from when he was in office in 2003 never held any water, Capellini said.

"The state took depositions and testimonies of people long before the trial, and they told them then the exact same thing they told them in court," he said. "So why did they continue to prosecute? It's government at its worst."

Judge Marc Gold decided in May that Capellini was not guilty of unlawful compensation when he voted "Yes" on a project that he also worked on as an engineer, a voting conflict.

Gold said he believed Capellini when the former mayor testified that he just voted "Yes" by mistake, without knowing what he was voting for, rather than with corrupt intentions.

Robb was not surprised the bill rose above $1 million.

"Looking through the bill, you see this guy subpoenaed the world for this trial," she said. "Let's be honest, this went on for six years."

abarkhurst@tribune.com, 954-356-4451, or Twitter @ambarkhurst