State Attorney must recuse herself in AB probe

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Ladra suspects Miami-Dade State Attorney Kathy Fernandez-Rundle won’t move on those boleteras caught red-handed in Hialeah last week with not three, not four, not 12 but 19 absentee ballots belonging to other people, in complete disregard and violation for a county law that is punishable by 60 days in prison or a $1,000 fine if you have more than two on your person, in your possession at any given time.

She’s going to go as slow as she can, I think. As slow as she’s always moved on these AB cases.

That’s because there is a possible conflict of interest that could be the reason the malas lenguas say Miami-Dade’s top legal eagle for the past 20 years won’t move on it until after the Aug. 14 primary.

Even after El Nuevo Herald’s Enrique Flor and Melissa Sanchez — reporters after Ladra’s own heart — published a story Sunday that detailed how Daisy Cabrera filled out the ballots for some of those absentee voters. Even as the community clamors for these women to be charged. Even as the Miami Herald sends its big dog investigative reporter Scott Hiaasen on the AB fraud trail. (Welcome to the deep end, Scott. Let me know if you want to borrow my flow charts).

And it’s not because, as she said in the Miami Times debate Friday night — in the first real challenge she’s had in a long time thanks to attorney Rod Vereen — “there are criminal investigations going on right now.” Heck, there are always criminal investigations going on right now.

It’s because, at least in this case, the inquiry could implicate one of her own campaign people. And how would that look?

One-time used car salesman Al Lorenzo, who worked on the Gimenez campaign last year and has been involved this year — although the Gimenez camp did not call me back Sunday to tell me if he was still on staff — is coming up more and more as the man behind Cabrera’s involvement in the Gimenez campaign. He and Hialeah Councilwoman Vivian “I’ll Notarize That” Casals-Muñoz, who is the one who secured Gimenez that choice spot for his Hialeah campaign headquarters — which used to be her old office. Both of them have used Cabrera before — Casals-Muñoz for her own campaigns and Lorenzo for the doomed-from-the-start mayoral bid of former State Sen. Rudy “The Falicitator” Garcia this past November.

Lorenzo also happens to work for Fernandez-Rundle. He would not answer repeated calls in the last few days. Maybe that’s because he knew that we were on to him. Campaign records filed Friday show that the state attorney has paid Quantum Results, Lorenzo’s company, more than $60,000 since last month alone for things like advertising and phone banks and “get out the vote” — which everyone knows is one of the code phrases for AB operations. Imagine que pena it could be if it got out that the same thing was happening in the State Attorney’s campaign — maybe, like the mayor, with absolutely no knowledge (read: plausible deniability) on her part.

Ladra is not saying that any of that money went to the Daisy Cabreras and Emelina Llaneses of this world — famous boleteras that Fernandez-Rundle has known about since at least last year because I myself have spoken to her and to Assistant State Attorney Johnnie Hardemon about them. But I am also not saying that it didn’t.

And what I am going to say for the sake of transparency — even if it’s just the perception of transparency — is that Fernandez-Rundle needs to recuse herself and forward this case to a state attorney in Palm Beach or Lee County or somewhere like Hillsborough where they don’t tolerate this kind of hanky panky hokey stuff and the law is the law, which was broken. Hello? It seems there should have been an arrest already.

So what if the cops dropped the ball the day they questioned the women, as several sources have said, because they didn’t want the paperwork to delay them from mini lobster season? There is no reason why the state attorney could not have arrested these people in the next three or four days after. It’s almost been a week.

The only thing Ladra can think of is that these junior boleteras — trembling now at the thought of a criminal record and actual jail time — can offer bigger fish. Because they’re runners, really, not brokers. So that would be lovely.

But even so, Fernandez-Rundle should have recused herself already, if only to avoid the slightest perception of a conflict of interest.

She shouldn’t wait til the clamoring from the community goes from “get in” to “stay out.”