Our friend Al Crespo gives us a shout out and we have to ask, why isn't anyone in the mainstream media covering the Airways Auto Tag scandal?

Our friend and collegue Al Crespo of the Crespo-Gram report gave us a shout out last week regarding our coverage of the Airways Auto Tag story.  You can read his article here.  Al brings up a great question regarding the story in his article...

In years past, this is a story that the Herald would have featured above the fold on it’s front page, because by any criteria, this is a major story about how 3 women were falsely setup, and how a Miami-Dade police detective and a Miami-Dade Assistant State’s Attorney should be considered co-conspirators in this scheme.
But, because a “blogger” is the one that uncovered it, chances are you’ll never see a mention of it on the Herald’s pages, because not only has the Miami Herald squandered it’s journalistic integrity when it comes to acting like a big city newspaper, but, when it comes to “bloggers,” they might cite us once in a while in passing, but what they won’t do is build off of the work and efforts of someone like Mike, and let the whole community know about this nasty deal.

So where is the Herald?  How about any of the local news stations? Is the story of three hardworking innocent women who were wrongly arrested by an incompetent cop not worth covering?  Perhaps the people watching what they try to pawn off as local news are more interested in hearing about Whitney Houston dying again and again rather than hearing a story about one of their own?  Where are all the investigative reporters?  Jim DeFede?  Hank Tester?  Jeff Weinsier?  Anyone?  I guess they're too busy working on breaking news...

Taking a closer look at the those close out sheets from the Airways Auto Tag Agency mess...

Yesterday we went over the "closeout sheets" that are at the center of the Airways Auto Tag Agency case.  These closeout sheets are used by the tellers to account for the money they turn in at the end of the day, the sheets allow the tellers and bookkeepers to break down what's in the tellers drawer by denomination, once all the money is accounted for, everything is totaled up for review then the sheet is signed by the teller and the bookkeeper.

 
The owner of the tag agency tells the state that the tellers entered erroneous information on these handwritten closeout sheets to cover up their alleged theft of tens of thousands of dollars.  Let's take another look at the closeout sheet from December 23, 2010, the date that the owner claims there was thousands of dollars missing, as always, click on the image to enlarge...

Ok, here we have a form that's filled out by hand simply inventorying what was in the tellers drawer for the day broken down by denomination and by check.  Simple enough.  According to the owner of the tag agency, Ileana Martinez de Castro, the agency checks these "close out" sheets for accuracy, scans them then destroys the originals.  Ok, so far so good.  The first problem that jumps out after a quick glance at the sheet is that the numbers don't make sense, IE eight quarters don't equal one dollar and four twenty dollar bills don't equal two hundred dollars.  Strange.  What's even stranger is that no one on the bookkeeping side of equation picked up on these simple mistakes that a second grader should have been able to recognize?  Even worse, whoever reviewed these closeout sheets didn't see this mistake till several months later when they realized there was all kinds of money missing?  That's hard to believe at the very least.

What set me off yesterday was Ms Castro's rambling testimony and her mention of something about lines on the sheet being distorted as a result of the scanning, that caused me to take a closer look.  I reexamined the closeout sheet again and found several issues, issues that I suppose Ms. Castro attributes to scanning.  Here is a another look at the closeout sheet with the anomalies pointed out by the red arrows...

Let's start with the item labeled "A", here's a closeup...

What we're looking at is the number "1" in the box that accounts for quarters.  Look at the top of the one where it meets the horizontal line, see anything strange?  See how the line on the top gets thinner just to the left and right of the one?  Now look to the left of the one and follow down, see what I see?  I've outlined it in red here...

See what I'm saying?  You can clearly see handwriting underneath what looks to be a cut and pasted image of the number "1".  Here are the two images side by side for comparison...

When you look at the two images side by side, it's clear that there's been some sort of alteration to this document.  Let's move on, now we're going to look at item "B"...

Now, what's bizarre about this item is that the number "2" we see here doesn't match the number "2" that we see anywhere else on the sheet.  For comparisons sake, I've collected all the number 2's from this sheet and put them side by side...

Does that number two look like it was written by the same hand?  Hardly.  Moving along to item "C"...

Once again we see a number that looks like it had something else underneath it.  Another anomaly attributed to scanning?  I don't know about that.  Now let's look at item "D"...

What happened to the line under the number two?  Another issue created by the scanning process or was there some sort of alteration here that obscured the line?  Oddly enough this is in the twenty dollar row where the math is screwed up as well.  Somehow this number two doesn't exactly match the other number two's that we know were written by the teller in question.  On to item "E"...

Now here we have two issues, first we have a handwritten number "3" that doesn't match the other number 3's on the closeout sheet...

...as well as a handwritten number "2" that doesn't match any other number 2's anywhere else on the sheet...

How did that happen?  Last but not least is this strange area towards the bottom of the sheet that I've circled in red and labeled  "noise"...

Could that simply have been "noise" generated by the scanning process or was there something written there that was poorly blocked out or altered leaving this mess on the scanned copy of the closeout sheet?  I don't know, perhaps this question is best left to a forensic document examiner.  What I can tell you is that something is definitely not kosher here, whether you look at each individual anomaly or all of them together, there is something wrong with this closeout sheet.  If the teller wanted to make up a bogus closeout sheet, she could have simply grabbed a blank one and put in the bogus numbers then turned it in.  


What we seem to have here is a closeout sheet that appears to be either digitally altered or whited out and altered by someone other than the tellers that were charged for stealing the money.  Why do I say so?  The difference in handwriting suggests that the person who originally filled out the closeout sheet was not the same one that went back in and put in the new numbers as evidenced by the different handwriting style.  These anomalies coupled  with the simple arithmetic errors that we're to believe went unnoticed till months later suggest that there is something nefarious going on here.  Like our old Italian painting from yesterday, when you look closely at this closeout sheet, someone is definitely getting fucked and it isn't a dog that's doing the fucking...

Details, details, details...

Almost all of the cases that we've written about since the inception of our blog are paperwork intensive.  There seems to be mountains and mountains of documents in each case, either documents and exhibits that the state turns over as part of the discovery process or voluminous deposition transcripts that easily exceed several hundred pages.  In these instances it seems utterly impossible to get a proper handle on whats going on in these cases considering the seemingly insurmountable pile of paperwork that accompanies each case.  Yet to fully understand these cases, you have to go through these documents over and over and over again. 


There's been several instances to date where I've looked at a specific document dozens if not hundreds of times and have noticed nothing then somehow miraculously after looking at the document for months on end, something literally just jumps off the page is if it was outlined in neon lights.  This seventeenth century painting of an Italian piazza is a perfect example, at first glance there's nothing unusual about the painting...

Nothing strange going on there, just an old painting with some buildings and some people, you could walk by this painting a thousand times and never notice anything, that is till you take a closer look...

The minute you focus in on the painting, you realize there's something in the middle of the painting just in front of the tower so you squint and take another look then BAM...

There it is, right in the middle of the damn painting, TWO DOGS HAVING SEX!  Once you see the two dogs having sex, you realize that there's a crowd of people in the painting all watching what the dogs are doing.  Now when I see the painting, the dogs are the first thing I see and to think I've seen this painting for years and never noticed the dogs!


So what's two dogs having sex in the middle of a several centuries old Italian painting have to do with our blog?  Luckily for us, the Airways Auto Tag case has very little in the way of documents in the states case file, what little I've been able to find on my own outside of the criminal case file consists mostly of transcripts of an unemployment compensation hearings where the tellers that were accused of stealing tens of thousands of dollars and subsequently fired from their jobs at the tag agency were simply looking to collect their unemployment benefits.  Luckily for us, the owner of the tag agency, Ileana Martinez de Castro, fought vehemently to deny these girls their unemployment benefits, her testimony during these hearings has turned into a treasure trove of information that I believe will ultimately be used against her if this case ever goes to trial.


According to the state and the allegations made against the tellers by the owner of the tag agency, the three tellers that were charged were accused of stealing money from the tag agency by accepting cash from the customers then after the clients left with their tags, the state alleges that the tellers would go ahead and void the transactions and pocket the money.  As I've mentioned before, the tellers have cameras and supervisors constantly monitoring them as well as keeping track of every dollar that the tellers take in.  At the end of every day, the tellers are required to fill out "closing sheets" which are basically an itemized inventory of every dollar that the tellers have at the end of the day when they close out their drawers.  Here is an example of a blank closeout sheet from the tag agency...

Simple enough and easy to understand, it's nothing more than a way for the teller to inventory the money in their drawer, itemize the various denominations, total everything up, sign and date it.  Then I suppose who ever does the bookkeeping then checks for inaccuracies then signs and dates it themselves.  


Now, lets move on to the tag agency owner's testimony regarding these closing sheets during the unemployment hearing specifically the close out sheet from the day the alleged thefts occurred, December 23, 2010...

Ms. DeCastro:  Okay, the paper that she turned in is on Page 11.  Page 11 is in her own handwriting.  And, she says that she put the wrong amount of the bill because, obviously, four $20 bills do not add to $200.  But the amount of money that she put on the right hand side add up to $14, 835.82; her handwriting which she signed and date, herself.  All we do is scan it.  The reason it has those lines on it is because we were making copies of copies, in order to do a closeout sheet; therefore, it looks like that.  But, we scan everything exactly the way they turn it in, their page. 

Huh?  What?  This excerpt of Ms. DeCastro's testimony shows a weird trait that she exhibits throughout all the unemployment hearing transcripts, she seems to ramble on at the slightest provocation.  I didn't think anything of the closeout sheet in question, till I read her her testimony for the third time.  Anyone who's every been to a deposition or a hearing of this nature is told by counsel again and again, simply answer the questions with a yes or a no, don't volunteer anything, keep your answers short and simple.  In this case all this talk about the scanning of these closeout sheets and "those lines" that she mentions that appear on the closeout sheets as a result of the scanning really got me wondering so I picked up the closeout sheet from December 23, 2010 and took a closer look to try to figure out what Ms. DeCastro was talking about.  Take a look for yourselves, as always, click on the image to enlarge...

First off, we notice at the top of the page, the fax header is from Duane Morris, LLP which we've learned is the law firm that represents the tag agency therefore authenticating the document as being a genuine close out sheet from the tag agency.  Now, as we just read, the owner of the tag agency mentions something about lines "looking like that", I can only assume that what Ms. DeCastro is referring to is the slight distortion in the lines because ostensibly as a result of the scanning process.  Once we blow up the closeout sheet, it's easy to spot the distortions Ms. DeCastro is talking about...

I went ahead and pointed out some of these distortions in in red in case you weren't able to spot them.  


After reading the transcripts, I was startled by Ms. DeCastro's willingness to ramble on, almost unprovoked.  I've learned over the years that no matter what the situation, if you give someone that's got something to hide enough rope, they're eventually going to hang themselves and in this instance Ms DeCastro didn't disappoint. Take a really good look at that closeout sheet from December 23, 2010 again and see if you see anything strange, for the astute among you it should be clear as day.  We'll discuss tomorrow...

The State Attorney's Office weighs in on the Sarnoff/Welch matter...

The post title speaks for itself, we're all too familiar with Grove gadfly Reid Welch and his recent encounter with City of Miami Commissioner Marc Sarnoff that ended with some sort of scuffle in front of Sarnoff's home.  

Based on eyewitness testimony from two unbiased witnesses, Commissioner Sarnoff ran up behind Welch, sucker punched him then wrestled him to the ground.  As our friend Frank Alvarado from the Miami New Times said...

​Call us crazy. But if two people saw Banana Republican approach someone, sucker punch him or her, and then pin our victim to the ground, chances are we'd be taking a ride down to Miami-Dade County jail. In fact, any Joe Schmo would have been arrested for assault or battery. But Marc Sarnoff is no regular citizen. He is a Miami city commissioner who has apparently gotten away with beating up his former pal and current nemesis, Reid Welch. 

Exactly.  What's even more disturbing is State Attorney's close out memo regarding this alleged assault...


Marc Sarnoff Reid Welch Assault Close Out Memo


According to the close out memo, the police and the state attorney's give more credibility to the testimony of a Sarnoff friend and campaign worker, Sue McConnell's testimony rather than the testimony of two unbiased witnesses who clearly witnessed the commissioner run up and attack Welch.  Let's not forget that the detectives who first investigated this alleged assault said this about Ms. McConnell's testimony...


"...conveniently she could not recall how they ended up on the ground."


Meanwhile you have two witnesses who clearly witnessed that Welch was on the ground because Sarnoff jumped him from behind.  Even a quick glance of the close out memo reveals some glaring inconsistencies, perfect example, did Ms McConnell have a phone or not while she was watching the alleged assault?  From the close out memo...

"The Woman, subsequently identified as Sue McConnell, was on her telephone at the time"

Ok, so Ms. McConnell was telling Welch he couldn't remove the campaign signs while she was on the phone.  Next the memo goes on to say...

"Ms. McConnell then yelled for someone to call 911.  She said she did not have her cell phone at the time."

Huh?  Did she or didn't she have her phone?  Which is it?  Does anyone proof read these damn things?  


Here's the final backhanded insult...

"While credibility is not a factor for any of those involved..."

Ok, that sounds reasonable but then they follow up with...

"Note:  The subject had also expressed concern because the Complainant inhales ("huffs") propane...The effects of huffing propane are unknown..."

So what happened to "credibility not being a factor"?  If credibility doesn't factor into anything, than why mention the huffing whose effects by the author's own admission are "unknown"?  And what about this bit about "the conflicting nature of the statements prevents proving a criminal charge beyond a reasonable doubt"?  What conflicting statements?  Two unbiased witnesses who don't know either Welch or Sarnoff clearly saw Sarnoff run up from behind Welch, sucker punch him then wrestle him to the ground.  Just because a Sarnoff friend, ally and campaign worker gives a sketchy recollection of what went on, a recollection that even the investigating officers don't buy, now we have "conflicting statements"?  WTF?


With all that said, I have to admit, I don't like Mr Welch.  Frankly I think the guy is off his rocker and he's got some unhealthy obsession with Sarnoff (duh).  And Sarnoff?  Despite what a lot of people think of the guy, I find it hard to dislike him.  For the most part, he's done good for the community and even though there's all sorts of allegations of wrong doing and dirty under handed schemes that he's allegedly involved in, no ones proven any of the allegations and even if true, he's no worse than any of his other colleagues.  Did Welch deserve to get beat down?  In my opinion, for sure, but not the way that Sarnoff did it.  As a sitting City of Miami Commissioner and a prominent local lawyer, Mr. Sarnoff should have handled himself differently, at the end of the day what he did, at least in my eyes, was clearly an act of assault that would have landed anyone else in jail.


Tomorrow, we dust off our document authentication and handwriting skills again, in the mean time, go back and check out some other instances where we've had fun with handwriting in the past...

The Airways Auto Tag Agency story, a quick recap...

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Before we get back into discussing the Airways Auto Tag Agency story, I think it's best to do a recap of the story as we've told it to date.  In a nutshell the state is alleging that three tellers that were employed by Airways Auto Tag Agency were stealing tens of thousands of dollars in a matter of days by voiding transactions after the customers had left and subsequently pocketing the money at the end of the day which created massive shortages in the tax revenues that the agency had to turn into the state at the end of the month.  Here is a quick glance at our various posts over the last couple of months with the links to the posts highlighted...

• We start off by learning that our old friend, MDPD Detective Jorge Baluja, is still busy screwing things up.
• Off to the friendly neighborhood tag agency to renew our tag only to find out that three of the tellers in the tag agency had recently been arrested by none other than Detective Jorge Baluja who has the dubious distinction of not being able to investigate his own way out of a wet paper bag.
• A little digging nets us a police report where Detective Baluja alleges that three tellers from the tag agency were stealing tens of thousands of dollars from the agency by collecting money from the clients then voiding out the transactions afterwords and pocketing the money.
• Now we realize how improbable it is for tens of thousands of dollars to be missing in one day from such a small tag agency.
• We go through some of the accounting procedures at this tag agency and once again come to the conclusion that stealing anything let alone tens of thousands of dollars would be near impossible from such a small, tightly controlled operation.
• A quick glance at some of Detective Baluja's previous less than stellar investigative work.
• Now we realize that the owner of the tag agency is married to none other than the Police Chief of the City of South Miami, therefore calling into question the impartiality of any detective investigating the tag agency case.
• We ask whether or not there was probable cause to arrest the tellers that were charged.
• Strangely enough now we find out that there were several other people that had access to the accounting software other than the tellers that were arrested and that the owner of the tag agency also owns the company that wrote the accounting software and therefore had access to the tellers confidential access codes.
• The tag agency owners own testimony reveals that the company's finances were in such bad shape that she was looking to "turn it in" and walk away from the business.
• Things get even more bizarre, we learn that the tag agency owner's daughter in law abruptly left the her job at the agency right after the money went missing and that her son is also one of the owners of the company that writes the accounting software that the agency uses therefore adding one more person to the list of people other than the tellers that knew their confidential access codes.
• Even worse, despite the tag agency having security cameras all over the place, somehow they didn't catch any of the alleged thefts.
• The height of stupidity, the prosecutor in the criminal case against the three tellers tries to convince the court that this blog is in some way shape or form working in concert with the three tellers to harass the owner of the tag agency and therefore wanted the court to revoke the three tellers bonds.

Well then!  Let's go back to the states motion to revoke the tellers bond from last week...

Motion to Revoke Bond for Lizbeth Mojica and Yamela Romero

The crux of this motion is the allegation that the defendants violated the terms of their pre trial release by contacting the victims, specifically through the testimony of a current employee of the tag agency, Nydia Espana, the state alleges that the tellers told her that "...the victim was going to "pay now" and that everyone would know through the use of the internet who the victim "really was".  

The state goes on to say that the defendants were seeking to harass and intimidate the victim(s) through this blog and "coupled with the statement made to the tag employee (Nydia Espana) by one of the defendants" that this violates the terms of the Pre Trial Release.  So what happened in court last Thursday?  Well, being the asshole that I am, I decided to clear my schedule and go over to the courthouse that morning and see whats going on.  When I arrived on the sixth floor just outside Judge Bloom's courtroom, I saw the owner of the tag agency, Ileana Martinez de Castro, her mother (who the state also claims was harassed by the defendants) and another older lady who I later learned was none other than the tag agency employee, Nydia Espana, who was there prepared to testify before the court against the three tellers.  

There was a slight problem though, something I noticed immediately, Ms Espana was there sitting outside the courtroom trembling.  She looked scared shitless.  At first I chalked it up to a simple case of nerves from someone who's never been before a judge, but that changed quickly.  I watched one of the defense attorneys asking her some questions outside, instead of simply answering the questions the poor woman would look over at the tag agency owner before she'd answer.  That seemed rather strange till I realized that this woman didn't know what to answer!  The attorney picked up on this strange dynamic as well and asked to question her without the tag agency owner, Ileana Martinez de Castro, present.  Strangely enough under questioning without her boss present, Ms Espana recanted her testimony regarding the alleged threats from the defendants!

Now what?!  The whole basis for the state's motion to revoke the defendants bond just went out the window!  So at this point the only thing that the "victims" have managed to do is suborn perjury by making their employee give this bogus statement against the defendants and have made the prosecutor, Warren Eth, look like a complete douchebag before the court.  NICE GOING!  If that wasn't bad enough, later in court when the prosecutor pressed on about the blog being used to "harass" the "victims" the judge had to remind him about some obscure concept called the "first amendment" thereby making the prosecutor look like even more of a tool!

Prosecutor Warren Eth

Don't get me wrong, Prosecutor Eth seems like a nice enough guy but I think that in this instance he was royally screwed by the alleged "victims".  You have to feel for the guy considering the pinch he was in, he puts together this motion whose sole intention was to get these girls who couldn't afford their ridiculous six figure bond amounts, locked up till their trial rolled around, all based on the statement given by a current Airways Tag Agency employee who claimed that the defendants had made some sort of threats against them.  Now, after the current employee recants her injurious statement against the defendants, what is the poor prosecutor left to do other than to withdraw his motion?  What this prosecutor should have done after being embarrassed and used like a worthless tool by the owners of the tag agency was to turn around and throw a perjury charge against the woman who recanted her statement as well as whoever put her up to making the statement!

Lonnie Richardson, Esq

Consider for a moment if the defendant's attorney, Lonnie Richardson, wasn't smart enough to catch the uneasy body language between the owner of the tag agency and the woman who made the statement against the tellers, the judge could have revoked their bond and thrown them in jail all based on some fabricated statement designed to keep these tellers from exercising their rights to free speech and to keep some asshole on the last page of the internet from investigating and writing their story.  WTF kind of shit is that?


I hope that after this incident, prosecutor Eth thinks twice before filing this kind of motion and will properly vet a statement that could ultimately cause innocent people to be thrown behind bars before they have their day in court.  After all, the only thing the alleged "victims" in this case have done here is manipulate a young, gullible prosecutor into filing a bogus motion that ultimately did nothing but embarrass himself and the office of the state attorney.

A new low point in the Airways Auto Tag Agency case and a major victory in a high profile federal mortgage fraud case...

Just when I though I had seen everything in the Airways Auto Tag Agency case, yesterday we arrived at an all time new low.  The other night while cruising the court docket for the defendants charged with stealing tens of thousands of dollars from the tag agency, I came across a troubling item, a motion to revoke the defendants bond.  I couldn't figure out what the hell this was all about as all three defendants had no criminal histories and as far as I knew were abiding by the terms of their bond.  I ran over to the courthouse to get a copy of the states motion to revoke these poor girls bond, here it is...

Motion to Revoke Bond for Lizbeth Mojica and Yamela Romero

Fucking disgusting.  What was the most troubling, at least for me, about this motion was item # 16...

So according to Prosecutor Warren Eth, the defendants are using this blog to harass and intimidate the victims by what they perceive to exposure?  Exposure to what, the TRUTH?  Trust me, the women charged in this case have absolutely nothing to do with this blog or anything that we've done over the last three years.  This motion and the hearing yesterday really have gotten under my skin.  I've remained neutral throughout the telling of this tag agency story, all we've done to date is show that there is no way anyone with a modicum of common sense could have charged these three girls.  This latest move, surely driven by the owners of the tag agency, to throw these girls in jail while they await trial is just indicative of how badly they need to have these girls locked up in order to absolve themselves of any wrong doing.  We're going to talk about this in more detail on Monday, rest assured, Judge Bloom saw through all this bullshit the state was trying to sell and Prosecutor Eth subsequently withdrew his motion.

Robin Kaplan

Now, back to mortgage fraud for a moment, one of the cases we've been following came to an end this week, the Versailles mortgage fraud case that involved several City of Miami firefighters and also included some of the defendants from the Veldora Arthur mortgage fraud case.  All of the defendants in that case, including City of Miami firefighter Thomas Thelusma cut deals from the get go while one defendant, Attorney Michael Samuda, went to trial.  Yesterday, Mr Samuda was found not guilty on four counts and the jury came back hung on the remaining three counts before federal Judge Marra.  Congrats to attorney Robin Kaplan and second chair Jeffrey Neiman, well done!

Those god damn security cameras...

Security cameras, they're fucking everywhere these days.  Where ever you look, whether in a store, an intersection, movie theater, etc, they're all over the place.  It seems like there's no place you can go where you won't find a camera watching you, especially where there's money involved.  You'll find most, if not all places that handle cash with cameras not only on the cashiers but positioned around the customers as well so that whoever is watching has a perfect vantage point from where to see everything that's going on, as one of our readers said, with a camera positioned in the right place, you could actually see every keystroke of a person at a computer or cashier.


So what's this got to do with our most recent story, the Airways Auto Tag Agency mess?  As I mentioned before, when I went over to the tag agency a few months back, I found that there were cameras all over the place, cameras in the parking lot, cameras inside the waiting area, cameras behind the counters, etc.  You would think that if anything had gone awry in the tag agency, it would all be caught on tape, right?  Such a recording would make fantastic evidence in a criminal prosecution, wouldn't it?  What better way to prove that someone had their hand in the till than to provide video proof?  You would think so right?  Yet somehow there's a conspicuous absence of any such evidence from the case file regarding the tens of thousands of dollars that the state alleges the three tellers from the tag agency stole.  What's up with that?  Perhaps our favorite detective, Jorge Baluja, simply forgot to gather the evidence?  Maybe he didn't notice the cameras all over the tag agency?  If nothing else, this warrants a closer look.


From the unemployment compensation hearing transcript we discussed last time, the owner of the tag agency, Ileana Martinez de Castro, tells us that there was some suspicious activity on Christmas eve of 2010...

Ok, so according to the tag agency owner, two people see this particular teller come into the tag agency ostensibly before the tag agency is open, this is strange since according to the owners testimony this particular teller never comes in early.  So we're to believe that this "strange" activity is occurring then literally the same day there's tens of thousands of dollars missing from the tag agency.  Now, if you knew enough to ask these "two people" about what they saw going on the day that you allege all this money was missing, wouldn't you think to go ahead and review the video tapes from you security cameras for that day?  Again, through the unemployment hearing transcripts the owner of the tag agency verifies that indeed, the offices and the tellers have security cameras...

Oh, that's fantastic!  We've now established that not only are there security cameras at the tag agency, but that video looks directly as the cashiers and the clerks, that's great.  So the next logical question is whether or not there are videos of the transactions in question, once again from the transcripts...

Oh crap, isn't that unfortunate?  The security camera video erases itself after ten days therefore there is no record of the transactions that took place in which the state alleges there were tens of thousands of dollars stolen.  What a shame.  What's even stranger is that the owner of the tag agency told the police a different story, when asked about the security camera recordings, she told the cops that the video erased itself after 30 days...

Ok, so now the tag agency owner is back peddling saying that the cameras record for thirty days before erasing "depending on the amount of movement you have on the camera".  I'm not exactly sure what that's supposed to mean and it seems like she doesn't either...

Well, as much as the attorney representing the teller charged with the theft of tens of thousands of dollars from this tag agency would have "adored" to have heard some explanation for how this security camera system worked, the owner of the tag agency gave no explanation whatsoever.  


What were left with is a bad ass security camera system that caught nothing on tape relating to the transactions where the state alleges the theft occurred.  Whether they record for thirty days or for ten days before the recordings are erased, I find it rather unusual that the owner of the tag agency had the presence of mind to interview two witnesses that had a crystal clear recollection of seeing one of the tellers come in at an unusually early hour and also remembered that when asked why she was early she responded by saying that she had to finish up something from the day before.  All of that yet no need, want or desire to review the footage from the security cameras that would have clearly shown everything that went on during the time in question?  Now take into account that in order to buy into this story we have to accept the premise that the owner of the tag agency was so out of touch with the day to day cash flow that she simply missed tens of thousands of dollars missing at the end of the day, which coupled with the witnesses to the alleged early morning suspicious activity from the tellers makes it seem even more improbable.  


Does any of this seem plausible to you guys or is it starting to sound like some sort bullshit?  I don't know, but at the very least we've now seen that the more layers of this case that we peel back, the less believable the states theory of the case is.


Now, regarding the comments from the previous post, I appreciate all the compliments you guys have given me but the reality is that I've done nothing special here.  All I've done is gather documents that are in the public domain, taken snipets out that seem to undermine the case against these tellers and then put everything together in a narrative that's easy to read.  If there's any credit to be given, it should be to the attorneys that attended these hearings who were able to elicit these responses from the people involved, all I've done is simply put it in a form that's easy to digest.  Most importantly as we get deeper into this story is the truth about what actually went on, a truth that has a way of revealing itself once you take a good look at the facts.  With that said, I'm still waiting on the attorney I tasked with retrieving documents that aren't available through the tools I have at my disposal.  Once I get those documents, we'll discuss...

At Airways Auto Tag, it's all in the family...

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So here we are waiting for my attorney to get back to me regarding those documents that are going to unravel the states case against the three tellers that were arrested for the alleged theft of tens of thousands of dollars from Airways Auto Tag Agency when I come across this police statement...

This statement, for whatever it's worth, comes from someone named Mirielis Martinez de Castro.  I suppose that she's in some way shape or form related to the owner of the tag agency, Ileana Martinez de Castro.  Let's take a look at her statement...

Here's the text of that statement...

I Mirieles Martinez de Castro worked at Airways Auto Tag for 9 yrs.  I left Airways on Jan 2011.  I did trained Tracey Gomez to do my work when I was absent and gave her my password.  I will void transactions but with my code.  I had no access and didn't know any of the cashiers password.  The only ones that had access to the accounting system was Ileana and I and when I was absent or on vacation Tracey was trained to do my work.

I wonder, when Detective Baluja was interviewing the tellers and presumably the woman that gave this statement, did he inquire as to the relationship between herself and the owner of the tag agency or perhaps did he already know that they were related?  Besides, did any of the cops on this case put two and two together and realize that the woman that made this written statement just happened to live in the same house as a guy named Christopher O. Martinez de Castro?  Let's refer back to our post regarding the company that makes the accounting software for the tag agency, a company called Nicrosoft...

Would you look at that?  It turns out that the guy that shares a home with the woman that made this statement is also one of the principals of the company that wrote the tag agency's accounting software and it appears that they're all related to the owners of the tag agency!  So now where does that leave us with those sensitive passwords that the police alleged that only the tellers they arrested knew?  It looks to me now that there's at least four people other than the tellers now that could have known those passwords and were able to log into the accounting system and voiding the transactions in question.

Here's the icing on the cake though, the state alleges that these thefts all occurred during December 2010, the woman that made the statement that we're talking about today tells us through her statement that she worked at the tag agency through January 2011, less than one month after the thefts were discovered.  Coincidence? At the very least when you take into account just how many people had access to the teller passwords as well as the fact that there is an uncomfortable incestuous relationship between the tag agency, the company that wrote the accounting software as well as the termination of employment of the woman who wrote this statement, we're left with a shitload of reasonable doubt, enough where I doubt any jury could possibly find the three tellers charged guilty of anything.  It sure is convenient to work with family members, especially when the shit hits the fan...

Just what does it take to get someone arrested in this town?

While I'm waiting on documents for the Airways Auto Tag agency story, I stumbled upon the investigation report for the Commissioner Marc Sarnoff attack on Coconut Grove gadfly Reid Welch.  From the looks of the report and eyewitness testimony, it looks like Mr Welch was telling the truth, City of Miami Commissioner Marc Sarnoff did attack Mr. Welch, punched him and wrestled him to the ground.  Here are a few excerpts of eyewitness statements from the report...

Ok, first let's look at what Mr. Maruri told the police...

In no uncertain terms Mr. Maruri witnessed Commissioner Sarnoff run from his house, punch Mr. Welch then wrestle him to the ground.  Now, Mr. Maruri is a unbiased third party with no ties to either Sarnoff or Welch so theoretically he's got no reason to lie about what he saw.  Now, onto another unbiased witness...

Once again, in no uncertain terms this witness says that Sarnoff hauled ass from his home, ran over to Welch, punched him in the back of the head and mounted him.  Wait WTF?

Ok, now that we have two unbiased witnesses that clearly state that Sarnoff attacked Welch, punched him on the back of the head then mounted him, what's the third witness say?  Let's look...

Convenient as this third witness, Sue McConnell, has a long standing relationship with Mr Sarnoff, even the cops don't buy her bullshit, in their report they state clearly "...conveniently she could not recall how they ended up on the ground."


Now, understand, I have no sympathy for Mr Welch, but if it was anyone else doing the attacking other than Sarnoff, surely they would have been arrested.  Here we have two witnesses who clearly witnessed Mr. Sarnoff running at Welch, sucker punching him, mounting him from the rear and keeping him on the ground while holding his legs (insert laugh here) yet no arrest.  This is a clear cut case of assault and like I said, I can't even blame Commissioner Sarnoff for attacking Welch but still, Sarnoff should have been arrested for assault no matter how justified he was in attacking Welch.  But like our friend Al Crespo is so fond of saying, "It's Miami Bitches!"

Stay tuned...

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I've actually hired an attorney to retrieve some documents pertaining to the Airways Auto Tag Agency case that aren't available to the public.  I'm supposed to get these documents at some point today so I'll probably end up posting them on Monday.  Trust me, if they're going to say what I think they're going to say then this entire case is going to be turned on it's ear.  Stay tuned...

Motive...

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If indeed the three tellers in the Airways Auto Tag agency mess were framed and used as scapegoats, why would someone do such a thing?  Remember, this is a purely hypothetical situation, like we've said before, the only things we know for sure about this story is that there were tens of thousands of dollars missing from the tag agency and that after about an hour long investigation, three tellers from the tag agency were arrested and charged with theft.  So what would be the motive for framing these girls if they didn't steal the money?  Let's begin by checking the definition of "motive"...

mo·tive

   [moh-tiv]  Show IPA noun, adjective, verb,-tived, -tiv·ing.

noun

1.

something that causes a person to act in a certain way, doa certain thing, etc.; incentive.

2.

the goal or object of a person's actions: Her motive wasrevenge.

Ok, so what would be the motive behind framing the tag agency tellers if they really didn't steal the money?  The most obvious answer would be to cover up someone else's wrong doing and to deflect the attention away from the real culprit.  Throughout this story, we've mentioned time and time again how improbable it would be for this much money to go missing from such a small operation, especially in an agency with such tight controls and managerial oversight.  Regardless, once again it's the tag agency owner's own statements that are the most damning, here's another excerpt of her testimony during an unemployment hearing for one of the fired employee's...

Wow, that's a pretty shitty situation, all sorts of money missing from your business, government after you to pay them the taxes you collected on their behalf, etc.  You have to sympathize with the owner of this tag agency, especially when all this money was missing in December of all months.  Her assertions of not being able to figure out what was going on seem slightly suspect, after all, didn't we learn yesterday that the owner of the tag agency also owned the company that created the accounting software they used in the tag agency?  She goes on to say...

There you have it, the poor tag agency owner, Ileana Martinez de Castro, at wits end and ready to walk away from the tag agency unable to figure out where tens of thousands of dollars had gone missing.  What a mess, her back against the wall, her little business in jeopardy, etc.  What to do?


Once again, let me remind you that we're not accusing anyone of doing anything, but consider this for a moment, based on what we've just read from the tag agency owner's testimony, doesn't she have the perfect motive for setting up the three tellers to take the fall for the missing money?  Think about that for now, so far we've taken everything the tag agency owner has told us as the truth, at this point we have no reason to not believe her, especially since she's the wife of the City of South Miami's Police Chief, right?  Right?