Stupid lawyer tricks...

I have an intense dislike for lawyers, the only thing that I hate more than a lawyer is a stupid lawyer.  I keep saying that I'm going to post up the letter that embattled City of South Miami police chief, Orlando Martinez de Castro's attorney sent me, but before I do so, let me start by giving you a brief excerpt from the letter that the chief's attorney, Paul Totten, sent me referring to a blog post I made about the chief...

In fact, this entry treads on defamation as you are using a 2007 annual report to insinuate that the Chief still has an ownership interest in his wife's insurance agency today.

No shit Mr. Totten?  Defamation for suggesting that Orlando Martinez de Castro has an ownership interest in his wife's insurance agency today?  Seriously?  Let me give you a few words of advise counselor, before you go off half cocked threatening people with this kind of nonsensical bullshit, do a bit of research.  While your letter suggests that you've been reading what I write on this website, you must not be reading to carefully.  If you were, you'd have noticed this email that I posted which was written by your client who was busy soliciting business for the insurance agency that he has "an ownership interest in" while on the City of South Miami's taxpayers time...

  OMC Solicits Business by The Straw Buyer

You see that Mr. Totten?  Pay particular attention to the date the email was written, April 6, 2011 and what your client had written in that email, specifically this part...

We owned (sic) a tag agency for the last nine year (sic) and we have an insurance agency internally.

What does that tell you counselor?  To avoid an ambiguity, let's make sure you understand the word "we" which means...

Used by the speaker or writer to indicate the speaker or writer along with another or others as the subject

Get it?  "We" as in the chief and his wife own a tag agency and an insurance agency plus the email was written in 2011 well after the 2007 annual report that you mention in your letter to me.  

So show me where anything you referenced in your letter even remotely borders on defamation?

Whatever the fuck ever.  If this guy is going to be defending the chief against the Miami Dade County Ethics Commission then his goose is cooked.

You're an idiot if...

You're an idiot if you're a law enforcement officer who takes the necessary steps to delete sensitive private information from the public records, ie the property appraisers records, in order to protect the whereabouts of your home while simultaneously publishing your home address all over other public records that anyone with a computer and 30 seconds to spare can find.

To ad insult to injury, you're an even bigger idiot when you have a dimwit attorney write someone like me a threatening letter for allegedly exposing how stupid you actually are!

I'm obviously in a bit of a rush today, tomorrow we'll take a look at the letter embatteled City of South Miami police chief, Orlando Martinez de Castro's attorney sent me regarding my alleged publishing of his home address.

Going back a few years...

Before we get into the letter that City of South Miami Police Chief Orlando Martinez de Castro's attorney sent me, I think it's best to go back a few years to a post we made back in 2009 where we discussed how a detective from the Miami Dade County Mortgage Fraud Task Force, Jorge Baluja, couldn't even execute the mortgage on his own home correctly.  Check it out here.  Ironically that same idiot detective who couldn't figure out how to execute his own mortgage correctly despite investigating mortgage and real estate fraud as detective, is the same idiot who years later made the case and the subsequent arrests in the Airways Auto Tag Agency boondoggle.  

So what's the big deal about all this?  Well, if you go back and take a look at the post, I included a photo of the detectives home that I got from Google Maps...

So what, right?  Our post on the subject was covered by photographer rights blog "Photography is Not a Crime" as well because of the photo that we posted...

And the blogger claims that Baluja botched his own mortgage, making him unqualified to conduct a proper investigation into any alleged mortgage fraud.
And in that post, the blogger even goes as far as posting a photo of what is supposedly Baluja’s house, which if you remember, that is what got prompted police to arrest a Virginia blogger.
However, he did not list the address and he simply used a Google Images photo instead of taking it himself.

Lol.  According to my sources within the MDPD the detective that I wrote about, Jorge Baluja, was enraged by my posting of this photo and the subsequent humiliation he suffered for not being able to execute his own mortgage correctly.  Despite all his please with the police department and the state attorneys office to take action against me, no one was willing to do so as I didn't break any laws by posting a photo of his house.  Now understand, law enforcement officers go through great lengths to hide their home addresses and other sensitive information for obvious reasons.  There are procedures in place with the county clerk to actually delete their addresses and any records that have sensitive information from publicly accessible searches.  So how did I find the detectives address?  A simple Google search turned up his address, less than ten seconds of searching just like that.

Now, fast forward a few years and we find ourselves smack dab in the middle of the mess the City of South Miami police chief.  During our research into the chief's misconduct with his wife's tag agency, a simple search of the State of Florida secretary of state showed several instances where the chief's wife listed their home address on corporate documents.  There was no nefarious schemes I used to obtain sensitive information, in fact it was the chief and his wife's disregard for their own safety despite the measures the state affords law enforcement officers to hide their information that made it simple to reveal their home address.

With that said, tomorrow we'll discuss a letter that the Chief's attorney sent me detailing my alleged misdeeds...

Rare footage from City of Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado's raid on the maquinitas yesterday...

In case anyone missed it, yesterday City of Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado and his pals conducted a nonsensical press conference where he publicly came out against the illegal gambling machines that we all know well and love, the maquinitas.  Our friend Al Crespo covered the press conference and the hypocrisy of the whole ordeal on his site this morning...

So, all of a sudden, Tomas Regalado has become a law-and-order guy when it comes to these maquinitas.  Forget that he personally inserted a maquinita owner - and not just any maquinita owner - but one who had been identified in a federal indictment as a mid-level member of the Cuban Mafia, to be part of the committee headed by the Miami City Attorney to draft the ordinance that allowed the machines to get licensed in the City of Miami.
That’s like inviting a child molester to be part of the committee tasked with writing a city ordinance to keep child molesters away from your kids.
Tomas Regalado took campaign money, and was in the pocket of these maquinita owners right up to this morning, and if he gets a chance he’ll continue to do favors for these same guys whenever her gets the opportunity, because that’s just the kind of guy that Regalado is.

Can the mayor sink any lower than this embarrassing publicity stunt?  The same mayor that was in the maquinita owner's pockets is now backed into a corner and has done an about face regarding these machines whose owners were his strongest campaign backers?  Honestly folks, WTF?

And yet another letter from a City of South Miami Police officer and a well written order regarding Michelle Spence-Jones

Once again, continuing our theme from this week, letters from City of South Miami police officers regarding their chief, we have another letter much in the spirit of the other we posted earlier...

Same theme, same threats of retaliation against the chief's detractors, etc.  Could this be a case of a few disgruntled officers or could it be the prevailing mindset over at the PD?  We'll see, as we said earlier, we have more letters that we'll post up.

On another unrelated note, we haven't been following City of Miami commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones struggle to be able to run for a third term lately, apparently former commissioner Richard Dunn filed suit against Spence-Jones and the City of Miami in order to prevent her from running again.  After the judge ruled against Spence-Jones and effectively prohibited her from running again, Spence-Jones accused the judge who was a former prosecutor of not disclosing that he had previously investigated her while he worked at the Public Corruption Unit of the state attorneys office.  Due to these allegations of misconduct, yesterday the judge recused  himself and took a couple of shots at Spence-Jones while doing so.  Check out the order courtesy of the Justice Building Blog...

Cueto order from Justicebuilding

Another letter from a City of South Miami Police officer...

Following this weeks theme, letters from City of South Miami police officers, we have another letter complaining about how the police department is run by embattled police chief, Orlando Martinez de Castro. As with yesterday's post, this letter is also anonymous and understandably so, considering the overall tone of these letters, you would think the cops who authored these letters would be scared shitless of reprisals by the chief.  Perhaps the letter we posted yesterday sums up the mood over at the police department the best...


He has mentioned that "nobody has the balls in this department to go against me." He continually speaks of all of his "contacts" and how he could make officers lives miserable by blackballing them in the law enforcement community.

With that said, let's look at today's letter, as always, click on the image to enlarge...

Once again, I have no way of verifying that these letters are authentic, the tone and the shear number of letters that I've received makes me believe that this is far more than an elaborate hoax to disparage the chief. These letters seem like desperate cries from men or women that are trapped working for a chief that's acting more like a tyrant than an officer of the law.

For what it's worth, I have to commend the people who wrote these letters.  Considering the atmosphere that they describe over at the PD, it takes balls to put your thoughts on paper and risk being found out by the chief or his cronies.

More letters tomorrow...

We're getting letters from City of South Miami police officers regarding their embattled chief, Orlando Martinez de Castro!

Have things finally gotten so bad over at the City of South Miami police department that it's officers are writing anonymous letters for me to publish?  I guess so!  This week we're going to post several letters that found their way to that appear to be written by unhappy police officers over at the South Miami PD.  While the letters are anonymous and leave me with no concrete way of authenticating them, the tone of the letters seem genuine.  Also, the way the letters are written lead me to believe that they have different authors, therefore making it unlikely that they were written by the same person.

With all that said, let's take a look at the first letter that we received, as always, click on the image to enlarge...

That's all for today, more letters tomorrow and even better, we'll conclude on Friday with a letter that the chief attorney wrote me!

The Bridge Tender starring City of Miami Commissioner Marc Sarnoff...

Well, that obviously wasn't Commissioner Marc Sarnoff talking to a bridge tender but it might as well have been.  I get an email the other day stating that in his infinite wisdom, City of Miami Commissioner Marc Sarnoff, want's to keep the bridges that cross the Miami River locked down for a longer period of time during morning and afternoon rush hour.  From the email...

"Proposed by City of Miami, Commissioner Marc Sarnoff, the bridge lock-down changes he is considering now, will affect all

 ​

waterway traffic.

The request is going to ask District 7 to consider temporarily modifying the Miami River drawbridge regulation: 33CFR117.305 (c) and (d); which regulates the opening schedule of the following bridges: Miami Avenue, SW 2nd Ave, and Brickell Ave. The proposal will ask to extend the afternoon curfew 30 minutes to encompass 4:35 pm - 6:30 pm and that no tugs/tows be allowed to pass during the existing morning and proposed afternoon curfews (7:35 am- 8:59 am / 4:35 pm - 6:30 pm). This request includes starting impacts at the end of April through the end of the year - December 2013.

Wonderful.  As if the Miami River wasn't already one of the most inhospitable waterways in the world for those who use it, be it recreational boaters or commercial traffic, now those of us who use the river have to contend with this asshat and his desire to keep the bridges down for a few more hours?  What's next, only opening the bridges for marine traffic from 12 to 6 am?  How about locking the bridges down permanently?

I'm obviously biased as a business owner on the Miami River who frequently makes the trip up and down the waterway several times a week, that's what makes this proposed regulation change all the more frustrating.  

Finally back up and running and by the way, where have all the maquinitas gone?

After a full week of battling with AT&T, endless hours on the phone with tech support from god only knows where, last night at 11:30 pm, I finally got my internet back up and running!  I'm not sure what the hell happened to lead to my internet outage for over a week but it took an AT&T tech in person, a new modem and all sorts of troubleshooting to get me back up and running.  Coincidence or just bad luck?  Who knows.

Moving on, during our hiatus, I noticed during my usual stops throughout the cafeterias and convenience stores of Miami Dade county that there seemed to be something missing, specifically maquinitas!

I didn't figure it out till I actually saw a guy with a hand truck removing the machines from one of the cafeterias that I grab breakfast at.  I guess the bill that was passed by the Florida senate last week has the maquinita owners scrambling for cover.  From the Miami Herald article regarding the bill...

Slot machine look-alike games operated by Internet cafes, amusement arcades and Miami’s maquinitas will be officially outlawed under a bill passed Thursday by the Florida Senate.

Gov. Rick Scott will sign the bill into law, according to his spokeswoman, and it will immediately take effect, giving law enforcement the authority to shut down games that fit into the newly-crafted definitions.

“What we’re doing today is doing nothing more than giving law enforcement and prosecutors the tools they need when they find illegal gambling to shut it down,’’ said Sen. John Thrasher, R-St. Augustine, the sponsor of the Senate bill. The Senate voted 36-4 for HB 155, which had been overwhelmingly approved two weeks ago by the Florida House,108-7

The measure moved swiftly through Tallahassee in reaction to a federal and state investigation into Allied Veterans of the World three weeks ago that led to the arrests of 57 people charged with illegal gambling, money laundering and racketeering. The investigation prompted Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll, who had once worked for Allied Veterans, to resign.

Police allege that that the sham veterans’ group made $300 million in profits by operating the illegal machines, but donated only about $6 million to charity. The investigation is continuing and law enforcement say they are targeting other operators.

The change effectively allows only pari-mutuels and the tribal casinos to operate casino-style games and bans any “casino-style game in which the outcome is determined by factors unpredicted by the players or games in which the player may not control the outcome of the game through skill.”

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/04/04/3324161/legislature-sends-internet-cafe.html#storylink=cpy

Fucking brilliant!  While the 70/30 split the machine owners offered the business owners was certainly lucrative, it's about time these things were outlawed.  I'm sure the economic impact for the business owners will be devastating as several of them, including my own tenants, have told me that they operate their business strictly as a front in order to house these machines.  More importantly thought, the outlawing of these machines cuts off a major income source for the underground business owners who reaped the benefits of the millions upon millions of tax free cash dollars that these machines generated.  To give you an idea of just how much money we're talking about, a former tenant of mine who had seven of these machines claimed that he was netting $2,000 per week from his machines, which would mean the machine owners were picking up around $870 per week or about a $125 per week per machine.  Taking that number into account then figuring the thousands of machines that were scattered all about Miami Dade County alone gives you an idea of the kind of money the machine owners were raking in.

Thank god that these machines and the political influence their operators and owners ill gotten gains created is gone once and for all.  The job former City of Miami Police Chief, Miguel Exposito, and his command staff started but wasn't allowed to finish has finally been completed, unfortunately it cost them their careers...

And to the doddering old fool that was protecting these illegal gaming machines and their owners?  FUCK YOU!

Honestly AT&T, WTF???

I have no idea wtf is going on over at AT&T, I've been without internet access from both home and work for almost a week now. Despite spending several hours on the phone with call centers from all over the world, the best they can do is promise that I'll have Internet access at some point tomorrow.
Since I'm not find of making posts from my phone, hopefully we'll be back up and running tomorrow. Till then...

WHOOPS! We made a mistake regarding the LeoAffairs police message board.

Yesterday while discussing a post on the South Miami section of the LeoAffairs website, we suggested the following...

Secondly, if the chief has a friend or supporter that's moderating that subsection of the South Miami forum then that same moderator has access to all the IP addresses of anyone that posts on the forum. The IP addresses along with the resources a law enforcement officer has at their disposal makes it a breeze to be able to identify whoever is making the derogatory posts about the chief or his department therefore making it impossible to have a proper vote of no confidence.

After posting that, one of our readers sent us this excerpt from the LeoAffairs website...

Moderators are unpaid volunteers assigned to Message Boards. They are responsible for enforcing the Terms of Use by Deleting inappropriate content, Editing content on rare occasions and Submitting the worst offenders for Banning. Moderators should read through new content on their respective Message Boards on a daily basis and, when this is impractical, the use of additional Moderators can be arranged. Moderators should also access the Moderator Forum at least weekly for updates, training, etc. Moderators are also encouraged to post frequently as the Moderator, Themselves and Anonymously. Moderators’ identities are strictly confidential and, those whose identities have been compromised will be removed. Moderators DO NOT have access to IP addresses.Ok, if you say so!  I was basing what I said on my own experience moderating internet forums where the moderators have complete access to posters IP addresses as well as registration info.  I suppose that it's entirely possible that the LeoAffairs website is set up completely differently.

Now with that out of the way, someone has actually forwarded us anonymous letters written by South Miami police officers complaining about the chief and how he runs his police department.  Stay tuned, we'll post those letters tomorrow.

In the mean time, while we're trying to figure out a fair way of conducting a no confidence vote for the chief, I'm told by my sources that a prominent local politician has been conducting meetings with the Broward State Attorneys office regarding the Miami Dade county absentee ballot scandal.  If what they're saying is true, you're going to see a lot of political heads roll.  I'll update as I get more information.

A blast from the past, is it finally the end for Alex Orriols? And what's this about a no confidence vote for City of South Miami Police chief?

Over the  weekend we received  the following comment regarding one of the original characters in one of the first frauds we discussed here on our blog...

Mary HolmesMarch 30, 2013 at 5:44 PMThis message is for person who created this blog, you have made difference! This blog has captured the eyes of the appropriate agencies and has led to ALEX ORRIOLS ARREST!!!!!

Along with that comment, we received the following pictures that seems to depict the United States Marshals service along with several police officers in front of Mr. Orriols business, Bluefin Marine...

If indeed the authorities finally arrested Mr. Orriols as a result of our investigative work here on this blog, then all I can say is IT'S ABOUT FUCKING TIME!  For those of you who don't remember Mr. Orriols or his role in the fraud that brought about the genesis of this blog, you can read up on him here.  Based on our investigative work, Mr. Orriols was smack dab in the middle of a major multi million  dollar financial fraud ring  yet despite how week and implausible his explanations were to law enforcement, he always managed to get away.  Years ago I figured if I were to lay out exactly how piss poor his explanations to law enforcement were and provide documentation to back up as much that sooner or later the cops would catch up with him. I suppose that's precisely what's happened.

On another note, I came across a couple of interesting posts over at the South Miami section of the Leoaffairs.com police forum, take a look for yourselves...

 OMC's Vote of Confidenceby Swift Justice » 03/31/13 10:16:10
I see a lot of meaningless writing on this board. It is good to vent though, however, once in a while I will read things that just harm people’s reputation and really have no substance. Ironically, I just finished reading that OMC and Ken Harms are the best choices for SMPD. Well let’s take a quick poll and see what the guys from inside SMPD say. I ask the outside members to please refrain and really hold back from intervening. I know how tempting such a question can be especially given these two characters’ reputation. 
The next thing I pose, is an actual vote of confidence. A real one! Let the numbers speak for themselves. No propaganda, no politics, just the facts.

While the intentions of the poster are good, I suspect that there idea for a vote of confidence is going to go no where.  Why do I think so?  Simple, first and foremost, the chief and his supporters have some sort of influence over the people who control the South Miami section of that forum, does anyone remember when negative comments and threads regarding the chief kept getting deleted from the board?  In case you forgot, we covered it here.  Secondly, if the chief has a friend or supporter that's moderating that subsection of the South Miami forum then that same moderator has access to all the IP addresses of anyone that posts on the forum.  The IP addresses along with the resources a law enforcement officer has at their disposal makes it a breeze to be able to identify whoever is making the derogatory posts about the chief or his department therefore making it impossible to have a proper vote of no confidence.  

We also came across this bit on the LeoAffairs forum...

chiefs n stuff..by thereporter » 03/24/13 21:56:50
So apparently our chief is out and a major from city of miami is taking his place. That's what they're saying on the city page at least  yaaaayyyy!!

What's that all about?  Anyone care to fill us in?  Also, if anyone can figure out a way to use our blog to conduct some sort of vote of no confidence for the City of South Miami Police chief Orlando Martinez de Castro, we''re all ears!