Nothing really happened when Hialeah Mayor Carlos “Castro” Hernandez swore to tell the whole
truth and then testified in court that he was, indeed, a loanshark charging illegal interest rates in a shadow banking industry ruled by Hialeah politicians.
He was either past the statute of limitations or granted immunity for his testimony against former Hialeah Mayor Julio Robaina, who was acquitted anyway in is tax evasion trial, and has remained in office even though everybody knows that he had outrageously lied for years about the loan he made to a jeweler and jailed Ponzi schemer Luis Felipe Perez.
Read related story: Duh! Hialeah’s Carlos Hernandez is charged with lying re loan
But on Thursday, the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust (COE) determined unanimously that Hernandez violated the Citizens’ Bill of Rights “Truth in Government” provision when he twice made false statements to the public about interest income he earned from a private loan.
His punishment: $3,000 in fines — doubled because the commission found that Hernandez knowingly and blatantly violated the county ethics rules — and another $1,000 for the investigation’s costs. The Commission further authorized that a “letter of reprimand” be issued against Hernandez, who did not attend the hearing Wednesday afternoon and who has previously questioned the commission’s authority and motives. Back in January, he call the Ethics Commission investigation a “political witch hunt.”
You know what he’s going to do with that letter, right? Limpiarse el … sudor de la frente.
Ladra was there at the 2011 press briefings held a month before his mayor election against former 
Mayor Raul Martinez. Hernandez had called the press in to rebut Martinez’s claims on TV shows that Hernandez had failed to disclose tens of thousands of dollars in interest payments on financial disclosure forms he was required to file as a councilman in 2007, 2008, and 2009. The TV shows had shown multiple checks made out to Hernandez for exactly 36% of the principal. But Hernandez told the journalists gathered that the monthly payments from Perez were to pay off principal, not interest, and as such did not need to be reported.
Read related story: Checks, lies and videotape in Hialeah
It took almost three years, during the Robaina trial in April, 2014, for Hernandez to admit that he did receive monthly interest payments to the tune of about $100,000 over those three years, even though they were not included under “source of income” in the financial disclosure.
“He was really insulting the intelligence of the public,” said Commission Advocate Michael Murawski, who auto started the complaint, p
robably out of sheer outrage after the flippant testimony in the Robaina case.
Well, what do you expect? He wasn’t under oath and fear of perjury when he talked to reporters in 2011.
But guess what Mike? Nobody believed Hernandez then, either. Everybody knew he was lying. None of the journalists at that press conference left convinced that, indeed, the exact 36% payments the mayor was receiving were paid on the principal of the loan. TV show hosts had multiple segments on it with the checks blown up in size and eyebrows raised for effect.
Ladra is quite certain that most of our other local elected officials didn’t believe him either. But they, too, used the cover to cozy up to Hernandez and pose with him for photo ops, knowingly posing with a liar and a loanshark.
So, he gets slapped with a fine? Is that it? He isn’t up for re-election this year and can’t be challenged on the ballot until 2017. Maybe this will help buoy a fledgling recall effort that Ladra has heard about, which started on a rezoning issue instead of his myriad abuses of power (more on that later).
Because this paltry fine is nada for a loanshark like him.
“A judgment by the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust, including the imposition of a fine as a penalty, is enforceable in a court of law if not complied with,” said Ethics Commission Director Joe Centorino.
“For an elected public official, telling the truth to the public about public matters is the coin of the realm. Failure to do so damages trust in government and undermines democracy,” Centorino said. “There is a line between political puffery and outright falsehood—it is our job under the Citizens’ Bill of Rights to draw that line at times.”
Okay. Just don’t just believe whatever Hernandez tells you about where he gets the $4,000. Or anything else about the city budget or absentee ballots or the reverse osmosis water plant or the inside deals cooked up at City Hall and Casa Marin restaurant.
He’s a proven liar.
Hialeah Mayor Carlos Hernandez is fined for loanshark lies added by Ladra on
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