In a stunningly quick turnaround by the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office, which usually moves at the speed of coffee in a watched cafetera, Hialeah’s Seguro Que Yes Council was cleared of allegations that they committed mass violation of the Sunshine Law by meeting together minutes before they were to vote on the city’s annual budget.
No official criminal investigation is needed, says the fast-tracked close-out memo, which also indicates that prosecutors simply took everyone’s word for it.
The lickety-split investigation — 10 working days — seems to rely on interviews instead of sworn testimony from the electeds in question and the people present on Sept. 9 when surveillance cameras capture the seven council members entering one after the other into the vestibule, if you will, of Hialeah Mayor Carlos “Castro” Hernandez‘s office, most with budgets under their arms. Councilman Jose Caragol, who did not bring one, took one on his way out, leaving at the same time with most of the other council members.
But, rather, it also relies heavily on the observations and unsworn statements taken by investigator Sylvia Batista of the Commission on Ethics and Public Trust, who, to add insult to injury, inferred that the video presented with the complaint from former Vice Mayor Julio Martinez, who is running against the incumbent, to be misrepresented. At best. From the complaint:
The council members all denied any violation of the Sunshine Law, but confirmed individual meetings concerning the budget (agenda item for voting). She [Batista] also interviewed the Mayor, who said he had met with the council members, but did so individually, and that he can meet in that fashion because he is a strong mayor and does not have a vote. There were two non-council people allegedly in the meeting(s), Ines Beecher and Armando Vidal. Ines Beecher also spoke with the investigator and confirmed there was no violation of the Sunshine Law, but she had met with council members individually. Armando Vidal, who returned from vacation yesterday, was interviewed and confirmed there were individual meetings and no two voting members met and discussed any agenda item in his presence. He was unaware of any Sunshine Law violation.
It should also be pointed out that the investigator went to the Hialeah city offices and compared what she saw
with what is allegedly represented on the video shown in the media and provided to our office. She was able to establish that the video is misleading because the door through which people are seen coming and going is NOT the Mayor’s office as claimed, but an entry to more than one office, including the Mayor’s. She also determined there is another entry/exit not in the video, which any of those concerned could have utilized at any time. Mr. Vidal looked at the video provided and explained the positions of the cameras and the layout of the offices in the area.The alleged violation of the Sunshine Law cannot be even supported by the evidence gathered. There is no basis to believe a law enforcement agency should be involved. Based on the statements and video provide, there is no reason to open a criminal investigation.
Really? Really? Hey, Ladra knows what that office looks like. Ladra knows, and wrote in the earlier post, that the video shows them entering the waiting room and then going through it to the rest of the mayor’s office, which includes his personal office, his secretary’s desk outside, a conference room, the office of his chief of staff, Arnie Alonso and maybe another room or two. Who cares? There is no way you can just assume that they all met in different rooms because they told you without being sworn, because they just said so without the threat of perjury hanging over their heads.
Really?
And I know there’s a back door, as referenced by Batista. I know it well. Ladra was ushered out through there when Hernandez threw me out of a joint press conference he was having with Attorney General Pam Bondi — of all people! — about fraud investigations. It’s possible, even, that Councilwoman Vivian “I’ll Notarize That” Casals-Muñoz went out through that door, since I never saw her in the train of people that left together. Councilwoman Lourdes “Who?” Lozano also left a little early, according to the video. But filed out together with the mayor and Alonso not far behind and went downstairs to the council meeting that was about to begin.
But the investigator thinks they were just waiting for each other? Individually? And Ethics Commission Director Joe Centorino and Assistant State Attorney Tim Vandergiessen, chief of the public corruption unit, bought it? They can’t be that gullible!
Really?
“It’s very simple,” Julio Martinez told me this evening. “This investigation never took place.”
“The boletero case was two people and it took two years and this is 15 people and hundreds of hours of video tape and it takes two weeks, ten working days?”
It was 8 p.m. Monday night and Martinez still had not received a call or notification from the State Attorneys Office or the Ethics Commission about the close-out memo, which was dated Oct. 24, which was Wednesday of last week.
“I haven’t been notified that the case is over and Carlos knew on Friday,” Martinez said. “He told me I was going to need Pepto Bismol on Monday and his people at JFK [early voting] were talking about it.
“They call the accused and tell him but they don’t call the victim?”
Martinez is furious. And adamant. And furiously adamant. He said he is calling Gov. Rick Scott tomorrow to intervene.
“I am going to ask him to investigate the State Attorney’s Office,” he said.
It absolutely is due. Ladra thinks you should talk to the FBI also.
Anybody who will take this seriously and get, at the very least, sworn statements from those involved.
Martinez also has a great idea. He will pay for lie detector tests for all seven council members and the mayor.
“And if it finds they are telling the truth, I will drop out of the race” Martinez told me.
How about it Mayor Hernandez?
SAO: No Sunshine Law violation in Hialeah. Really? Really? added by Ladra on
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