Travelling today...

No time to post, I'm out of town till this evening.  Till then, check out the new express lane into the county courthouse...

It's official, the government drops it's case against Warren Papove...

As the title states, it's now official, the federal magistrate presiding over the Warren Papove deportation case has signed an order dismissing the case that the City of South Miami Police concocted to get Mr. Papove deported from the United States.  The order was recorded this morning...

Warren Papove Order of Dismissal

Congratulations to Mr. Papove and his supporters and shame on those involved with the detention and subsequent arrest for making the last six weeks of this mans life a living hell.

MAJOR BREAKING NEWS!! Warren Papove to be released!!!

For our readers that have been following the Warran Papove deportation story that arose from the ongoing nefarious activities of City of South Miami commissioner Valerie Newman and the city's police chief, Orlando Martinez de Castro, you'll be glad to hear that Mr Papove's six plus week stay at Krome Detention center is going to be coming to an end very shortly.  We were informed yesterday through Warren Papove's federal public defender, Samuel Randall, that the federal prosecutor assigned to Mr. Papove's deportation case has decided to recommend to the presiding judge that all criminal charges against Mr. Papove should be dropped!

The dismissal of the criminal charges against Mr. Papove is huge news as it completely upends the efforts of Commissioner Newman and Chief Martinez to humiliate the people who took care of Mr. Papove while he lived in South Miami.

Now that this ugly chapter in South Miami politics is coming to a close, the question that we're left to ask is whether or not the entire detention and subsequent arrest of Mr. Papove was done legally.  From the original police report written by Detective Mendez of the South Miami Police Department, we were told that an anonymous caller placed a call to code enforcement alleging that Mr. Papove was doing work on someones property without a permit, allegedly a code enforcement officer came out and while all this was going on detective Mendez drove by and recognized Mr. Papove from a wanted poster.  As we discussed a few days ago, that entire scenario seemed highly unlikely, what seemed far more likely.  We seemed to think the whole thing went down like this...

• Commissioner Valeria Newman and Police Chief Orlando Martinez de Castro scheme and try to figure out a way to embarrass their nemesis on the commission, Bob Welsh.
• A friend of Newman's tells her about Mr. Papove working in the neighborhood and Newman relays this information to the Chief who does a quick background search on Mr. Papove then finds out that he's not supposed to be in the United States. A light goes off in the Chief's mind and both he and Newman concoct this plan to arrest Mr Papove and humiliate Commissioner Welsh.
• A sucker in the police department is picked to put together this bogus case and to write a false police report in order to further Commissioner Newman and Chief Martinez de Castro's plot.

Doesn't that seem more realistic?  If indeed that is the way it went down then the whole police report is a fabricated pile of bullshit.  Tomorrow we're going to compare the police report written by the City of South Miami police department to the report that the feds wrote and see if we can point out any inconsistencies in the reports.  Until then, congratulations to Mr. Papove and his attorney!

The Miami Dade Ethics Commission responds...

For what it's worth, the Miami Dade Ethics Commission finally responded to our request for any materials regarding the ethics complaint that arose from our Airways Auto Tag Agency story against City of South Miami police chief, Orlando Martinez de Castro.  Check out the response we got from Ethics Commission advocate Michael Murawski...

Dear Mr. Hatami:  

Thank you again for the information you provided to us. At this time, no public records exist concerning this matter and I can not confirm the status of any of your inquires.  

Sincerely, Michael Murawski

Oh, Ok!  Mr Murawski's response is a bit underwhelming, but while the investigation into Chief Martinez's alleged unethical activities are ongoing, all the records pertaining to the investigation are not "public record".  That's all well and good but what bothers me is how long this investigation has taken, I understand that the allegations are a bit more serious than the allegations that the ethics commission had against commissioner Bob Welsh a few months back, but really, how much time do they need to wrap this up?  Our sources from within the South Miami Police Department tell us that investigators from the Ethics Commission have interviewed several police officers who have all said that the Chief did indeed steer city business to his wife's business, so if indeed that is the case, what's taking so long?

The Miami Herald follows up on our Warren Papove story...

A few weeks ago we told you the story of Warren Papove, a South Miami resident/handyman that was allegedly doing work on someones home without a permit then somehow found himself behind bars at the Krome Detention Center.  In our opinion, since Mr. Papove was found to be doing nothing wrong, his detention and subsequent trip to Krome doesn't seem like it was above board.  The whole thing stinks and smells of a setup whose sole intention was to embarrass South Miami Commissioner Bob Welsh.  From our post a few weeks back...

PAPOVE SAID THAT HE WORKED FOR BOB WELSH IN SEBRING, FLORIDA HELPING HIM BUILD A HOUSE FROM THE BOTTOM UP. PAPOVE STATED HE WORKED THERE FOR APPROXIMATELY TEN (IO) MONTHS.

PAPOVE SAID HE LIVED IN A BARN ON THE PROPERTY AND USED A BUCKET AS A RESTROOM.

As we mentioned before, what does any of this have to do with Mr. Papove getting questioned for doing work on someones property without a permit?

Now, check out the Herald story, our friend Andrea Torres went down to the Krome Detention Center to visit Mr. Papove and ask him a few questions, what's most interesting though is how the police came to find out about Mr. Papove...

South Miami police Maj. Rene Landa said the complaint on Papove came from Newman.

That would be Commissioner Valerie Newman, the same commissioner that called me a "scumbag" a few months ago.  That creates a bit of a problem though, lets go back to the original police report that we posted  a few weeks ago...

AN ANONYMOUS PASSER BY, OBSERVED PAPOVE WORKING IN A YARD AT THE INTERSECTION OF SW 74 ST AND SW 63 AVE AND BECAME CONCERNED THAT HE WAS THERE WORKING WITHOUT A PERMIT.

That doesn't sound like what the cops told the Herald reporter now does it?  It gets better, back to the Herald article again...

Police Chief Orlando Martinez de Castro found out U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had wanted him for entering the United States after a previous deportation to his native Canada in the 1980s.

Huh?  According to the police report, I thought it went like this...

WHILE DRIVING PASS (sic) THE SCENE, DET. MENDEZ, RECOGNIZED PAPOVE AS A PERSON WANTED FOR AN IMMIGRATION VIOLATION, FROM A WANTED FLYER.

Lol.  So that's not how it happened at all now, is it?  And even better, according to the original police report, all of this mess arose because of a code enforcement complaint, but then again according to the Herald...

The code enforcement department, which is under the authority of the police department, doesn’t have an official record of the complaint.

WUT!?  No record of the code enforcement complaint?  How the hell can that be possible?  This is the best part though...

“I read the narrative of the police report. It went into too much detail about him working on Commissioner Welsh’s house. It was pretty rehearsed,” said Todd Ostergard, an immigration lawyer who visited Papove as a favor to friends who live in the neighborhood. “This whole thing has the hallmarks of a set up.”

No kidding?  Of course it was rehearsed.  The whole damn incident and subsequent police report was staged and rehearsed.  Let's look at how things really went down, for a moment forget about the police report and follow my theory of what happened...

• Commissioner Valeria Newman and Police Chief Orlando Martinez de Castro scheme and try to figure out a way to embarrass their nemesis on the commission, Bob Welsh.
• A friend of Newman's tells her about Mr. Papove working in the neighborhood and Newman relays this information to the Chief who does a quick background search on Mr. Papove then finds out that he's not supposed to be in the United States.  A light goes off in the Chief's mind and both he and Newman concoct this plan to arrest Mr Papove and humiliate Commissioner Welsh.
• A sucker in the police department is picked to put together this bogus case and to write a false police report in order to further Commissioner Newman and Chief Martinez de Castro's plot.

The rest is history.

It's too bad that despite their intentions, Commissioner Newman and Chief Martinez de Castro's plan was so poorly executed.  I'm even going to go out on a limb here and suggested that the fabrication of this police report may have even risen to the level of criminality, the question that begs to be asked though is why the hell would Detective Mendez do something like this?  Perhaps the chief's got something on the detective that he used to pressure him to be involved in this circus?  Who knows.  The other thing that I'm told that makes this all the more puzzling is that Mr. Papove stated several times that Chief Martinez de Castro was present and very involved with his case while he was at the South Miami PD, you have to wonder, if the chief wasn't up to his eyeballs in this mess, why would he bother being involved in the detention of a poor handyman that wasn't doing anything illegal?

The most telling part of this whole ordeal is that when the folks down at Krome realized that Ms. Torres was from the Herald, they quickly escorted her out of their facility and apparently Mr. Papove is now being transferred out Krome and to another detention center in the middle of the state.  I'm honestly embarrassed for the residents of South Miami as these goings on seem to be the signature of a petty third world tyrant.  Congratulations Commissioner Newman and Chief Martinez de Castro, you guys would have made the other Castro down south proud...

Some news on the ethics investigation into South Miami's police chief through a rather unusual source...

Anyone wonder whats been going on with that investigation by the Miami Dade Ethics Commission into the Chief of Police of the City of South Miami, Orlando Martinez de Castro, for allegedly steering city business to his wife's tag agency?  We've contacted the ethics commission several times since they opened the investigation into Chief Martinez's activities and they've always told us that they can't comment because it's an ongoing investigation.  That's understandable I guess.

Recently though, word has reached us that the Ethics Commission had found probable cause to move forward against the chief for allegedly sending his wife's tag agency business, clearly in violation of the City of South Miami's own ethics code.  Unfortunately though, I haven't been able to substantiate any of these rumors, that is till the other day when I received a letter in the mail with no return address.  I've redacted some sensitive information that we'll reveal a little later on, but for now take a look at the letter for yourselves...

So according to this letter the Ethics Commission has found probably cause against South Miami Police Chief Orlando Martinez de Castro on four counts, one of which is a misdemeanor.  If true, this certainly doesn't bode well for the chief since as per the City's own code of ethics, he'll have to forfeit his job as the police chief!  Accordingly if we're to believe the contents of this letter, Chief Martinez has gone ahead and hired a criminal defense attorney which is completely understandable as his job is on the line.

Another source tells us that the Ethics Commission did indeed send a probable cause letter to the chief.  Several people claim to have heard the Chief ranting and raving in his office after receiving and reading this letter claiming "this is serious" and that he could "lose his job over this".  Indeed Mr. Martinez de Castro, this is serious and yes, you could lose your job over this! 

Now, isn't it ironic that just a few months after we starting writing about how the chief's wife had railroaded three innocent girls in the Airways Auto Tag Agency boondoggle that now the chief himself allegedly has to go out and hire his own criminal defense attorney?  

That's some ironic shit right there folks.  Regardless, things are really starting to heat up in South Miami, there's some really ugly shit going on down there.  Stay tuned...

I thought everything was alright over at Airways Auto Tag?

Seriously?  Weren't all of Airways Auto Tag Agency's problems over once the owner, Ileana Martinez de Castro, had the three tellers that were working for her arrested for allegedly stealing tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars from her tiny auto tag agency?  That's what any reasonable person would have been lead to believe, right?  If indeed things did go down as Mrs. Martinez de Castro had suggested and the three tellers did indeed steel all that money which according to her caused her to borrow money from all over the place to keep up with the tag agency's day to day obligations as well as it's most important obligation, paying the state of Florida the taxes that the agency collects on the states behalf.  So here we are 20 months after the alleged thefts occurred and 16 months after the tellers were arrested, shouldn't everything be fine over at our favorite tag agency?

Let's step back for a moment and re-read Mrs. Martinez de Castro's own words during one of the depositions regarding this case...

Ok, that's understandable.  If indeed the three women arrested in this case were really stealing money from the tag agency, their actions would leave the tag agency's owner, Mrs. Martinez de Castro, in quite the pickle.  As she goes on to tell us, she had to borrow money, going so far as to get a second mortgage on her house to replace the missing money.  No doubt, a shitty position to be in.  The next part is even more interesting...

Here Mrs. Martinez tells us besides wanting to give up the tag agency and "turn it in" that "they" "came in and started doing an investigation..."  I suppose since we're talking about money that was owed to the state in the form of "sales & use" taxes that the tag agency collected on behalf of the state that the "they" Mrs. Martinez is referring to must be someone from the state, namely someone from the department of revenue or another state law enforcement agency.  I get it.  You're late in paying the state the money you collected on their behalf then "they" come looking around in order to figure out WTF is going on.  Makes sense.  But this shouldn't be a problem any longer since those evil women who allegedly bilked this poor little tag agency out of tens of thousands of dollars were arrested and were no longer working there, right?  WRONG!

Fast forward to October 3, 2011, six full months after our favorite MDPD police detective, Jorge Baluja, slapped the cuffs on these three tellers and escorted them to jail.  Check out this little love letter that the state of Florida department of revenue sent the folks over at Airways Auto Tag Agency...

Airways Auto Tag Agency Warrant

WTF?  This letter in no uncertain terms gives the court or the local sheriff to go over and snatch $6,807.11 in cash or assets from Airways Auto Tag Agency for non payment of tax revenues they collected on behalf of the state of Florida!  Now, this just doesn't happen because you missed one months worth of payments to the state, the Department of Revenue only issues a warrant after you've missed several payments and only after they've exhausted every possible way of getting you to reimburse them for the money you've collected on their behalf.  Strange, huh?  What makes this even more bizarre is that the three tellers that the tag agency owner alleged were the root of all her financial issues had been gone for six months when this warrant was issued, so we're left to ask, who's at fault in this instance?

Now here's the real kicker, earlier we presumed that when the struggling tag agency was having problems repaying the state's tax and use fees that it was solely because of the money the three tellers allegedly stole.  The tag agency owner in her deposition tells us that when she couldn't pay the state that "they came in and started doing an investigation", my question now in this instance where the state had to go so far as to issue a warrant in order to try to recover their money, did "they" ever come in and try to figure out why they hadn't received their money or do "they" only come in when "you" need to railroad three innocent women in order to cover up your own misdeeds?

Strange times over at Airways Auto Tag Agency, strange times indeed...

Absentee ballot fraud prevention taken to another level...

Daisy Cabrera, alleged absentee ballot fraudster pictured with Mayor Gimenez

With all the noise about absentee ballot fraud recently, two Miami Dade legislative candidates have decided to put there money where there mouths are.  According to this flyer put out by candidates for state house, Ross Hancock and Dr. Jeff Solomon, they will pay anyone $1,000 for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of people committing absentee ballot fraud.  Check out the flyer...

Absentee Ballot Fraud Reward

Sounds legit!  Visit their website for more info.  But here's the real question.  Considering how pervasive this type of voting fraud is, why is it left to two candidates for state house to put something like this together?  Shouldn't the state attorneys office or the police be offering a reward like this?

More on the Warren Papove story...

Krome Detention Center

We left off last week discussing the bizarre case of Mr. Warren Papove, a South Miami resident who was somehow detained for doing work without a permit but was then picked up by I.C.E. (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and is now waiting at the Krome detention center waiting to be deported back to his native Canada.  We discussed how strange all of this was and how his detention may have even been illegal. 


Mr Papove has been sitting in Krome now for several weeks awaiting a deportation hearing I presume, the other day I got an email with someone who visited Mr Papove at the detention center.  What's bizarre about this whole case besides how the cop who arrested Mr. Papove wasn't called to the scene of the incident but was instead "just driving by and happened to recognize Mr. Papove from a wanted poster", what's really bizarre is what the person who visited Mr. Papove says he told them during there visit.  Allegedly I.C.E. agents repeatedly asked Mr. Papove whether or not people in South Miami knew that he was an illegal alien, specifically city commissioner Robert Welsh knew about his immigration status.  Mr Papove also told the visitor that he heard an I.C.E. agent tell one of the security guards that his case was a "high profile case".  Now, what exactly does that mean?  How can the detention of a guy doing yard work be a "high profile case"?


Based on what we know so far, the line of questioning during Mr. Papove's detention and most notably the law enforcement's peculiar obsession with where Mr. Papove takes a shit during his stay at Commissioner Welsh's farm "PAPOVE SAID HE LIVED IN A BARN ON THE PROPERTY AND USED A BUCKET AS A RESTROOM", one can only conclude that this is some sort of nefarious scheme by the powers that over at the city of South Miami to get commissioner Welsh into some sort of trouble.  If this is the case then it just goes to show how far these people are willing to go to further their agenda, first railroading the three tellers in the Airways Auto Tag agency case and now having Mr. Papove detained and subsequently deported under some very suspicious circumstances.  


This is some very dirty, nasty shit folks, if this is really how go down in South Miami then it's best to steer clear of the place...