The Florida Department of Law Enforcement has passed on a request from the 
Miami Lakes council to open an independent investigation into the May car accident involving Mayor Michael Pizzi and a tree.
FDLE Director Scott McInerny told Miami Lakes Town Manager Alex Rey in a letter dated Aug. 3 that they reviewed the investigation by Miami-Dade Police and did not find a reason to look into it further.
“FDLE’s decision in this matter is based upon the fact that from all accounts, Mayor Pizzi’s single car traffic crash was thoroughly investigated by the MDPD and the information reviewed by the FDLE found no criminal predicate which would warrant any involvement by the FDLE.,” McInerny wrote.
Say what? Wasn’t the whole point to look at additional information not in those reports and questions subsequently raised that were not investigated?
Rey did not return a call from Ladra late Wednesday. But didn’t the council ask the FDLE to investigate the very investigation they are now citing?
Read related story: Miami Lakes asks FDLE to investigate Michael Pizzi crash
Last month, after two dozen or so speakers for and against the mayor sounded off, the council voted unanimously to requests an independent investigation into the circumstances of the June 13 hit and run accident in which Pizzi struck a tree on Northwest 82nd Avenue and 140th Street and then
was seen running from the car.
Although he came back all cleaned up anywhere between a half hour and 90 minutes later, depending on who you ask, Pizzi was not charged with leaving the scene of an accident.
It is widely believed that he used some political palanca to buy himself preferential treatment from the police. Either that or his santero is really, really good.
Rather than just peruse the investigative documents submitted by the Miami-Dade Police Department, the FDLE needed to look into Pizzi’s cell phone records for the hours after the crash and the phone records of the officers involved.
Investigators should have taken sworn statements from the residents that Pizzi said he was meeting with at Town Hall when others insist he was at a the Cancun Grill getting loaded.
Detectives needed to find the unnamed friend who
drove him back to the scene of the accident and take a formal and sworn statement from that person about what happened.
The FDLE should have looked at all the changes in the stories Pizzi himself has told and even gotten a sworn statement from him so we could get one story on the record.
They needed to get to the truth.
“There’s too many inconsistencies in the stories,” Councilman Ceasar Mestre said at the June meeting where they requested the independent investigation. “Why did you leave? Why did you run? There’s people in this town that deserve answers.”
The FDLE was supposed to get them.
Red flags: Michael Pizzi ran from crash, changes story
FDLE spokeswoman Molly Best told me that could only be asked by the agency or the governor’s office, not by a town. So, the Miami-Dade Police Department would have to ask for an investigation into its own unit. That’s not going to happen.
So, where are we on this? Right back at nowhere, 
with Pizzi — who beat a bribery rap last year and won a court battle to get back in office earlier this year — pounding his chest and claiming yet another victory.
“I am delighted that a completely independent investigation and review of this matter found no evidence of wrongdoing or reason to second guess the decisions of our outstanding police,” Pizzi said, clearly exagerrating, in a statement.
“I am happy that this matter is closed with no suggestions of any wrongdoing or preferential treatment. Now, we can all move forward with the people’s business.”
Would that business be conducted at Cancun Grill?
Miami Lakes: FDLE won’t look at Mayor Michael Pizzi’s crash added by Ladra on
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