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...