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...