After about a half dozen or so empty threats to get cease and desist letters from one angry and unethical political operative who I keep exposing, Ladra finally got one last month. But not from an expected source.
No, it was from an old friend, which makes it worse.
Hialeah hunk and secret agent political operative Alex Perez, owner of FPI Security and Florida Gun Center, had an attorney draft a cease and desist letter that threatens me with a defamation lawsuit if I don’t remove (within five days) the March 16 blog in which I suggest he may be the first client for the new lobbying business of Hialeah Councilwoman Vivian “I’ll Notarize That” Casals-Muñoz (here they are photographed together during early voting last October at JFK Library in Hialeah).
Well, that deadline came and went last week and the blog post is there, where it will remain for a virtual eternity. Alex, who used to praise my work, defend my right to free press and applaud 
my defense of transparency, should have known that Ladra does not respond to threats. No matter who they come from and how much they hurt.
First of all, I know what I am doing. Been doing it for 20+ years. Secondly, I also have some friends and supporters (for now, anyway) who are attorneys. One such friend, a source on other matters who is a noted first amendment lawyer, read the cease and desist letter and laughed. He explained that of course I would run the risk of Mr. Perez going through with his threat and file a frivolous lawsuit if he had the financial means and spare time (and he has both) and drive to go for it.
“But if he does, take your two Pulitzers to the courtroom and we’ll put your Emmy on the table and it should be over pretty quickly.”
Okay, maybe that was a gratuitous, self-promoting pat on my back to include that in this note, but the attorney did say that and another friend/lawyer I spoke to echoed the same sentiment . In other words, Ladra has nothing to worry about.
Perez and his lousy attorney (she was not even specific about what was defamatory, which she needs to be) don’t have a legal leg to stand on. Here, let me give you people the three basic rules of libel, or defamation by a journalist, so you don’t feel nervous for me, dear readers.
First, I have to knowingly publish false information. We’ll go through the post again so you can see that all I wrote are facts and where I make suppositions, I say they are suppositions (based on very good research, sources and sniffing talents and backed up with photographs). Second, there has to be a malicious intent in what I write. My intent is and has always been to shed light on the inside track of political shenanigans; to raise the curtain, if you will, and reveal the grand wizard at the levers. Third, any complainant would have to prove that what I wrote actually damaged his or her reputation. I don’t think that is the case here. If anything, Alex’s own actions and new social circles are what’s hurting his rep.
Let’s go through what I wrote, shall we? It wasn’t really about him, anyway. It was about Casals-Muñoz and her new firm, Vivian Casals-Muñoz Consultants. While she also declined to return numerous calls and emails for comment, the Florida Division of Corporations shows she filed corporate documents in January and her recent behavior and photo ops lead Ladra (and others) to believe she’s lobbying.
I wrote that Alex might be her new client. He might be. Check.
I wrote that Alex was owner of FPI Security and Florida Gun Center. He is. Check.
I wrote that Alex helped Casals-Muñoz in her election after Danny Bolaños broke his heart and met with Tony “Phony” Vega. He did. They did. Check.
I wrote that Vega had built an illegal gun range to compete with Perez. He had. Check.
I wrote that Casals-Muñoz had helped promote Alex’s businesses (and I even posted photos that document it). I wrote that she had him on her radio program. She did. I wrote that she had an event at his gun range for the Hialeah Chamber of Commerce and Industries. She did. I wrote that she kept flashing the back page of Imagen Hialeah where his ad is at a magazine party. She did. Sure looks like she is helping to
promote him.
Check.
I wrote that Alex hired me after the election to do website content and media consulting for his firms. He did. And I did a great job for him, by the way (did everybody see that story on page 1A of El Nuevo Herald and the piece on CBS 4?). Check.
I wrote that Alex’s secretary fired me. Actually, Josie called me to tell me “your services are no longer needed” because, apparently, el pistolero es un poco pendejo (you can’t sue me for that, either, my former friend). Check.
I wrote that “perhaps” firing me was a favor from Alex for his new friends, who do not like me as much. And perhaps it is. It sure smells like it.
I wrote that he has cut me off completely since he started hanging around his new buddies, which include mayoral s
ecretary Lisette “La Chonga” Franco and Council President Isis “Gavelgirl” Garcia-Martinez, who he had complained about just a few months earlier and said that she was spreading vicious rumors that could hurt his family. He did tell me that in his office (there was a firefighter witness I could bring into court if I had to) the last time we spoke in January, when he also told me that one of his clients had threatened to take his business elsewhere if Alex continued working with “that blogger.” That was the last time we spoke. He didn’t return multiple phone calls, emails or text messages — even as I lined up those stories for him (for which he never gave me any feedback). He didn’t even call me to say he had changed the passwords on our social media sites. And he has been hanging out with them, at City Hall and a city picnic. Photos do not lie or libel. Check.
I wrote that the councilwoman/lobbyist’s most important job with him was as bridge builder with Hialeah Mayor Carlos Hernandez, whose toes Alex definitely stepped on by supporting first former Sen. Rudy Garcia and then former Hialeah Mayor Raul Martinez in the race. He was ABC (Anybody But Carlos), just like Ladra. He did support Garcia and Martinez. Everybody knows that he drove Garcia around and he donated at least $1,500 to the Martinez campaign. It’s in the campaign finance reports. And the photos of him with Hernandez no
w show that there could be a buried hatchet (other than the one in Ladra’s back, that is). Check.
I wrote that Perez had spoken ill about Hernandez and his cohorts during the election. He did. Now maybe he was lying to me then and is being honest now. But he did badmouth them regardless. How would I know if it was all show? Another check.
I wrote that Perez feared political retaliation from Hernandez (and with good reason since su alcaldito is known for his grudges). He told me himself that he feared the city would rain inspections on him. He told others, too. Guess we may have to bring them into court.
Because what I won’t do is back down and remove my post or take back anything I said. Yeah, he’s got much more disposable income and free time than Ladra — not to mention a whole municipal cheer leading squad egging him on. And Ladra will have to hope that one of the honorable attorneys in this community will help her out because Alex and everyone knows I do not have a defense fund.
But it would cost me a lot more if I buckled to this blackmail. Because then anyone who takes issue with something I write — and it could happen again, people; anything is possible — would think that there is an easy way to get me to remove words and/or, worse, stifle them, and the first amendment and democracy, in the first place.
Think again.
I stand behind my words and post. Alex, through his attorney, hinted that I wrote about him to get back at him for firing me. That could not be further from the truth. If anything, I didn’t write about him earlier because he was my friend. And, in fact, I will argue that his sudden turnaround is even more relevant if, by chance, the work he was having me do for him was really a means to distract me from the blog that embarrassed his new political friends (and if it was, it worked for a while). Or if he is lining up to receive some kind of city contract, which he might be. He has done business with the city before.
The bottom line is Ladra has done nothing wrong and I have nothing to hide. Not even my pain (told you transparency can be a bitch). Because the truth is that I came to care for Alex a great deal — maybe because he pretended to care about me. I would have worked for him for free and I told him so on several occasions. I feared that doing business would hurt our friendship. (Check).
And I thought there was something special about him. Frankly, I still do. Even if he is being led by his nose (or something lower) by a group of ash heaps he has allowed to get close to him. And even if I did overestimate his intelligence a little bit.
Oh, and no, you can’t sue me for saying that, either.
This is how Ladra responds to threats added by Ladra on
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