For those of you who want to know why the Airways Auto Tag Agency case still isn't resolved...

A number of our readers keep asking us why the criminal case that arose from the alleged theft of tens of thousands of dollars by three tellers from the Airways Auto Tag Agency hasn't been resolved yet.  While I wish there was some great explanation as to why the case has been delayed, it's going on 2+ years now, there really is no excuse.  Perhaps the best way to sum up the situation is to take a look at this quote from the Justice Building Blog yesterday...

Law schools already churn out lawyers, the effects of which are price pressures for services in the marketplace. But you get what you pay for. And from our lofty perspective, the sight of poor families squeezing out a few dollars in the mistaken belief that a "private lawyer" will do a better job than a public defender results in lawyers who are nothing more than plea mills- incapable by lack of training in trying a case, and unable financially (based on ridiculously low fees) to afford to do anything more than plea out their client.

That's the sad truth behind most of the "private lawyers" running around the justice building these days.  They'll keep grinding their clients for more money, explaining for months at a time that they're working on the case, they're talking to the prosecutor (who happens to be their friend), they're working out a deal, etc all the while promising to take the case to trial and then finally putting you in a corner and trying to jam a plea down your throat.  You don't want the plea?  Well then, get another lawyer!

Karma, reflecting on last week's events...

As we all know, last Thursday the City of South Miami commission adopted a resolution that stated that former police chief Orlando Martinez de Castro's employment contract was voided when he took on the position of acting city manager.  A couple of hours later city manager, Steven Alexander, issued a memorandum appointing Major Rene Landa acting police chief since he concluded that he "had no police chief in place".

Shortly after the commission meeting, de Castro's son, Christopher Martinez de Castro, confronted me and accused me of "writing bullshit about his family, wrecking his family, putting his family through hell, etc" and ultimately concluded his tirade by calling me a "bitch ass nigger" then tried to physically attack me.  That's all well and good, its understandable that the friends and family of the de Castro clan would be upset, after all their patriarch just lost a formidable position within the community as well as six figure salary, in part because of my actions.  

This must be a traumatizing experience for the former chief and his family, I can only imagine.  Somehow though, I know what it feels like to be publicly humiliated and accused of all sorts of wrong doing, I know the shame that is visited upon a family after being written about in the local media for your alleged nefarious deed.  I suspect that the three tellers that were framed for stealing tens of thousands of dollars from de Castro's wife's tag agency have some idea of what this feels like as well, accused of wrongdoing, humiliated in public, thrown out on the street with no job, etc.  How about Warren Papove?  I suspect he knows how it feels?  Taken away from his home and thrown into detention for months on end then deported, for what?  Some bullshit immigration charge trumped up by some bogus code enforcement violation that the former chief de Castro dreamed up?

I could go on and on with stories of people getting screwed by former chief de Castro, the one distinction that Mr de Castro enjoys when compared to these other folks is that he wasn't falsely arrested, striped of his rights then had to fight the criminal court system for months if not years to clear his name.  Next time the members of the de Castro clan are sitting around thinking about how unjust everything that has happened to them is and what an asshole I am for writing about their misdeeds, think about the people that you've fucked over and just how bad you've altered the course of their lives.  

Consider that the girls from the Airways Auto Tag case were/are facing 190 years in prison for the crimes that you've accused them of committing, consider how you racially profiled and victimized prominent attorney Joe Klock's law clerk countless times for no other reason than his skin color, consider the different city employees, constituents and former elected officials whose lives were shattered because of your political machinations.  Take a moment while you're stewing over what happened to you over the last year or so culminating with the loss of your beloved job as chief and think about the people I've mentioned and the countless numbers of people I haven't mentioned and contemplate what you've done to them before you lash out at me or any of your other critics.  Only then can you come to peace with yourself and your actions.

An interesting comment from one of our readers regarding the Airways Auto Tag plea offer...

One of our readers left in interesting comment in response to this bit from yesterdays post regarding the plea deal the prosecution offered the tellers who were accused of stealing tens of thousands of dollars in the Airways Auto Tag Agency case, from yesterdays post...

Despite being reminded by the judge and of all people Mr. de Castro's attorney, Simon Steckel (more on that later) that if they went to trial and lost they could face up to 190 years in jail, what do you think they chose to do? Put this mess to an end and take a plea which after taking the required pre trial diversion courses would leave them scott free? NOPE! In one of the most courageous moves that I've ever seen, these girls decided to go ahead and go to trial.

And here's the comment that our reader left on yesterday's post...

Wait, you are saying Chief OMC's defense attorney, Simon Steckel, who has no standing in this court, is allowed by the Honorable (?) Judge Pooler to run roughshod over three defendants?? WTF? The tellers are brave women indeed if they still believe American justice might pay a rare visit to the 11th Judicial Circuit where KFR's cult appears to be controlling the judges as well as the prosecutors. Somebody had better alert USDOJ in Washington because nobody down here is going to do a thing. Democracy and Justice in Miami succumbed from undetermined causes shortly after balloteros were seen leaving via the back door with a spool of piano wire.

Our reader brings up a great point here, what the fcuk exactly was embattled City of South Miami Police chief Orlando Martinez de Castro's defense attorney doing at this hearing that had absolutely nothing to do with the chief?  Secondly, how did Mr. Steckel have any standing before the court to say a single word, let alone try to strong arm these girls into taking a plea?  



Honestly, WTF?  I guess I'm going to have to see if I can get a transcript of the hearing that day before Judge Pooler and see exactly wtf went on.  Till then....

Cowardice and Courage, the tale of two pleas.

So here we are again, still mulling over the plea deal that embattled City of South Miami police chief, Orlando Martinez de Castro, took in his ethics case before the Miami Dade County Commission on Ethics.  As we discussed last time, Mr de Castro pled no contest to the ethics violations that he was charged with in the ethics commission's probable cause affidavit.

So what's the big deal?  Why are we continuing to beat a dead horse?  Think about it for a minute, why would someone charged with a crime or in this case an ethics violation, take a plea of no contest?  After all, no contest basically is the same as a guilty plea in the eyes of the court, so why the hell would someone take a deal like that, let alone a chief of police accused of several ethics violations as well as possibly having broken the law by sending city business to his wife's tag agency?  Traditionally, people who take a plea do so for a couple of reasons, either they're guilty as hell and have been given a sweet heart deal by the prosecutors or they're innocent and they simply don't have the resources to keep paying their lawyer to fight for them and the deal they're given as a result of the plea is good enough that they can basically resume their normal life relatively unscathed.  In the instance of embattled police chief Orlando Martinez de Castro, judging by the attorneys he's brought to the ethics hearings and the ones that keep firing off the nonsensical threatening letters to anyone that looks at the chief the wrong way, it's obvious that resources aren't an issue, so it only stands to reason that the chief was guilty as charged in the probable cause affidavit and that they gave him a good enough deal where he was walking away with a slap on the wrist.  Fair enough.

Now let's turn for a moment to the girls who were formerly employed by the chief's wife and were accused of stealing tens of thousands of dollars from the chief's wife's tag agency.  A couple of weeks ago, the three tellers had a hearing before the honorable Judge Pooler where they were asked whether or not they were going to go to trial in their criminal case.  Before the hearing, the prosecutor had offered the three girls a sweetheart of a deal, plead no contest (sound familiar?) agree to a pre trial diversion program and the charges are dropped.  According to Court Options, a pretrial diversion program is:

...an alternative to prosecution offered exclusively by the Miami-Dade County State Attorney’s Office. It provides offenders with a viable alternative to a criminal conviction, and allows them to make significant changes in their lives so that they can avoid further involvement with the criminal justice system. Offenders enter the program voluntarily and in some cases before they make an appearance in court.

Not bad?!  Here you are accused of stealing tens of thousands of dollars, get arrested and have spent the last two plus years of your life bouncing through the archaic criminal justice system all the while trying to maintain some level of employment while waiting to go to trial.  One of the three girls after being laid off and unable to work as a result of her ongoing criminal prosecution opted to take the deal.  It's understandable after all, by taking the plea, the case get's closed, she takes some classes and viola, it's all over.  But what about the other two tellers?  Despite being reminded by the judge and of all people Mr. de Castro's attorney, Simon Steckel (more on that later) that if they went to trial and lost they could face up to 190 years in jail, what do you think they chose to do?  Put this mess to an end and take a plea which after taking the required pre trial diversion courses would leave them scott free?  NOPE!  In one of the most courageous moves that I've ever seen, these girls decided to go ahead and go to trial.  Frankly, I have to admit when I learned that they chose to go to trial and risk getting 190 years in prison versus simply taking a plea and walking away, I was shocked.  I was shocked until I talked to one of the girls who told me...

I've lost everything because of this case, all my money, my car etc.  The only thing I have left is my dignity and if I would have taken this deal, they would have taken that away from me.  I won't plead out to something I know I didn't do, if I go to trial and lose, so be it, at least I can hold my head up and know I did the right thing.

What can you say to that?  Amazing that a police chief who swore to uphold the constitution of our country chose to take a plea deal rather than go to trial and face his accusers while a poor teller who certainly can't afford to prolong a criminal case that's already been going on for two plus years chose to go to trial and clear her name rather than compromise her integrity by taking a plea offer from the state.  I don't know what your opinion of the tellers decision is, but the chief's decision to take the plea deal certainly speaks volumes about who he is...

Justice delayed or justice denied?

Here we are over two years from the date that the tellers at the Airways Auto Tag Agency were accused and arrested for allegedly stealing tens of thousands of dollars from the tag agency and the state.  After nearly two and a half years after the fact, today the court docket indicates that the trial of these three tellers is supposed to start.  

While the docket might give some degree of hope for this mess to come to an end, the reality, at least in my opinion, is far different.  You can't go to trial without having deposed witnesses that were involved in the case at hand.  In this particular instance, one of the main witnesses is none other than embattled City of South Miami police chief Orlando Maritnez de Castro, whose wife owns the tag agency where the alleged thefts occurred.  For reasons unbeknownst to me or anyone else, Mr. Martinez de Castro refuses to appear for a deposition, now this is nothing new for the chief as we saw this same pattern of behavior with the Ethics Commission, through trickery and subterfuge, Mr. Martinez de Castro and his lawyers managed to keep from getting deposed throughout the course or the ethics investigation and the discovery phase of the Airways tellers case.  

The question that begs to be asked is why is a veteran law enforcement officer, who I'm sure knows how to deal with attorneys, avoiding getting deposed?  What exactly is the chief afraid of?  Regardless of the games the chief is playing to avoid getting deposed, what excuse do the defense attorneys have for not having the court compel the chief to appear at a deposition?

Whatever the case may be, there is no excuse for a case like this to drag on for over two years, two years during which the defendants lives are in limbo, two plus years where the defendants are literally unemployable and are watching everything crumble around them.  I don't know who's more to blame, the prosecutors for not moving forward with the case or the defense attorneys for not insisting that the case go forward in a reasonable period of time.  

Regardless, in this instance, justice delayed is justice denied.  Who knows, maybe today the judge will hold the attorneys feet to the fire and make them try the case or perhaps the tellers will get lucky and the state will drop the case.  We'll fill you all in tomorrow and let you know what went down in court.

Just when you think things can't get any worse! Also, embattled City of South Miami Police Chief Orlando Martinez de Castro heads off to a deposition...

Bit by bit as more and more of our constitutional rights are eroded as each day passes, it never seems to amaze me just how far our government will go.  As if the justice department going after Google to get our user data wasn't enough, now somehow the British newspaper, The Guardian, obtained a top secret court order requiring Verizon to hand over all their customers cell phone data!  Check out the court order from the Guardian article...

  GoverORDER REQUIRING THE PRODUCTION OF TANGIBLE THINGS FROM VERIZON BUSINESS NETWORK SERVICES, 15-80 INC. ON BEHALF OF MCI COMMUNICATION SERVICES, INC. D/B/A VERIZON BUSINESS SERVICES.nment Order to Verizon

In other news, there's finally some movement in the Airways Auto Tag Agency criminal case.  We're told that the defense attorneys will be deposing City of South Miami police chief Orlando Martinez de Castro today.  Should be interesting, I'll update as soon as I have more information.

More conspiracy theories...

We left off yesterday promising to describe a conspiracy involving the City of South Miami's police chief, his wife's tag agency and the City of South  Miami that was going to knock your socks off.  Remember back when the Miami Herald asked former City of South Miami City Manager Hector Mirabile about the chief sending city business to his wife's tag agency, he responded by saying...

City Manager Hector Mirabile said Martinez de Castro knew nothing about the purchases at the time they were made, and when he found out, immediately told his staff to stop using his wife’s company.

OK!  Fair enough.  Considering we live in the land of "presumed innocent until proven guilty", let's presume that both city manager Mirabile and embattled police cheif Martinez de Castro were telling the truth.  For the sake of our discussion, let's say that neither the chief or the city manager knew anything about the city sending business over to the chief's wife's business despite the fact that it's clearly against the city's own rules and laws.

Ok, now put on your tin foil hats and let's see exactly what would have to happen in order for this to have occurred.  On one end of the story, we would have to have the entire City of South Miami accounting department, police department and city manager's department conspiring to keep the fact that they're sending business to the chief's wife's business a secret from the chief himself.  Remember, everyone involved knew that steering business to a city employee's family business was a violation of the city's ethics rules, so in order to keep the chief out of trouble, they would have had to keep the entire enterprise from being discovered by the chief.  As preposterous as that may sound, this part of the conspiracy had to involve at least half a dozen or more people from the city.

Now on the other end of the spectrum, we have the conspiracy that was afoot over at the Chief's wife's tag agency as well as the chief's own household.  Consider that the chief visited his wife's business frequently during business hours and since he had family members working at the tag agency, it's entirely possible that there was tag agency related discussions over at the chief's house after work.  Now consider that in order for the chief not to know that the family's business was doing business with the City of South Miami, all of the tag agency's employees as well as his family members that worked there would have conspired to keep the illegal transactions a secret from the chief!  Once again, this part of the conspiracy would have involved at least another half a dozen people!

Now that's some funny shit.  Think about it, if we're to believe the chief's assertions that he knew nothing about what was going on between the city and his family's business, we would have to buy into this massive conspiracy between the employees of the City of South Miami and Airways Auto Tag where the deliberately broke the law and kept the chief from finding out what they were up to.  Even worse, for those of you who know Orlando Martinez de Castro's style of micro managing everything he's involved in, it's even more preposterous to buy into his assertions of "I didn't know what was going on".

If you buy that story, then you'll love my new tag that I just got from the chief's wife's tag agency...

Wacky conspiracy theories...

I must apologize to our loyal readers for my sporadic posting of late, I've been extremely busy out in the real world and haven't had enough time to dedicate to the blog and all the things we've been talking about.  Today, I'd like you guys to think of all the various conspiracy theories that we've all heard about throughout the years, whether it's the moon landing hoax conspiracy, the Pearly Harbor attack conspiracy or the JFK assassination conspiracy.  Think about how many moving parts each of these conspiracies have and just how many people have to participate in the stories to make them viable.

With that in mind, I'd like you to revisit this statement from former City of South Miami city manager Hector Mirabile when asked for a statement from the Miami Herald regarding the Chief of Police, Orlando Martinez de Castro, sending city business to his wife's tag agency...

City Manager Hector Mirabile said Martinez de Castro knew nothing about the purchases at the time they were made, and when he found out, immediately told his staff to stop using his wife’s company.

Think about that statement, we'll discuss tomorrow when we discover a conspiracy over at the City of South Miami that will make the moon landing hoax pale in comparison!

Enough with all the South Miami bullshit.

That's what some of our readers have been telling me, enough with the South Miami centered blog posts.  It's understandable, after all, we don't live in South Miami, don't know anyone that lives in South Miami and despite what some of our detractors have said, I'm not sleeping with anyone involved in South Miami politics or any of the three tellers that were arrested as part of the Airways Auto Tag mess nor do I have a vendetta against the city's police chief or his wife.  

So what happened to our blog that used to discuss all sorts of goings on at the State Attorney's office with tales of dirty prosecutors and lying cops?  What about all the fraudsters we used to expose?  As some of our followers know, we stumbled upon the whole City of South Miami mess because of the Miami Dade Police Department Detective (now patrolman) Jorge Baluja who investigated and subsequently arrested the three tellers that worked in the City of South Miami police chief's wife's tag agency.  From there purely by coincidence did we stumble upon the cesspool that is South Miami politics and the dirty operators behind the scenes like police chief Orlando Martinez de Castro.  Through our efforts we managed to help get the city manager fired and now have the city's police chief on the verge of getting fired because of the ethics investigation we initiated against him.

Why bring this all up now after spending over a year rambling on about South Miami?  It's rather simple, after talking to a friend who's employed by one of the major media outlets, I asked him, why no one is really paying attention to what's going on in South Miami, his answer was as follows:

No one cares about what's going on down there, it's a little two square mile town, it's small time, no one gives a shit.

That's when it dawned on me, what better place for fugitives from the City of Miami police department back political scene to plant there roots?  For these guys, Mirabile, Harms, Martinez de Castro, etc who were chased out of the City of Miami, could you think of a better place for them to take over other than sleepy little South Miami?  "Small Time", no one's paying attention, no one cares, the ideal place to scheme and scam without getting anyone's attention.  Perfect.  In fact, major media cares so little about what's going on down there, I'm told that embattled police chief Orlando Martinez de Castro and his wife sat down with a local reporter to tell there side of their story for over and an hour several months ago.  Has anyone seen anything in the media about said interview?  NOPE.  Why you ask?  When I reached out to the reporter he told me that besides sitting and listening to both of them lie for nearly an hour, nothing they told him, even if true, was interesting enough to write about.  LOL.

Oh well.  At least we now know why we don't here about most of the dirty dealings in South Miami anywhere but here.  Even if no one else gives a crap about what's going on, we're going to stick around a bit longer, at least till the chief is shown the door and the girls from the tag agency are acquitted.

Stay tuned, tomorrow we're going to propose a theory for a conspiracy that went on in South Miami so bizarre and elaborate that it makes the JFK conspiracy theorists look sane in comparison.

Major Rene Landa, ass kisser extraordinaire or ultimate smart ass?

Last week when we left off discussing the email that embattled City of South Miami police chief, Orlando Martinez de Castro, sent out basically apologizing for the mess that he created by steering city business to his wife's tag agency, we mentioned that were going to discuss City of South Miami's Major Rene Landa's response to the chief's email.  Before we get to Landa's email, let's take another look at the heart of the chief's email...

He goes on to spout some bullshit about me being a scumbag and how the Miami Herald reporter has an agenda and is "not their friend", whatever the hell that means.  From the email...

Less than two hours after the chief sends out this mea culpa email, Major Rene Landa responds with this gem...

Now on the first read this response makes the Major seem like the ultimate ass kisser but upon reading it a second time, there seems to be another dimension to this email, specifically this part...

Chief: I know your ethics and there is nothing for you to apologize for.

The way I read that is very simple, to me it says I know what you're all about and who you are and that you knowingly steered the city business to your wife's tag agency.  And that bit about the reporter, it's as clear as day, the chief gave him an order and he's going to follow it.  At least that's the way I see it, so rather than label Major Landa as an ass kisser  I think I'd say he's far smarter than the chief and that he's simply being sarcastic in his answer to the chief's apology email.

Major Rene Landa

Regardless of which way you see it, with the chief's days numbered, my sources tell me that at the very least Major Landa is going to be appointed acting chief during the search for a replacement and may even be selected as the current chief's permanent replacement.  I guess we'll have to wait and see what the next few weeks hold in store for the chief...

Embattled City of South Miami Police Chief Orlando Martinez de Castro issues a mea culpa regarding the Airways Auto Tag agency scandal.

Just when things were getting a little boring regarding the embattled City of South Miami Police Chief, Orlando Martinez de Castro, and the mess he created by sending city business over to his wife's tag agency, we get an anonymous email that manages to stir the pot up again.  

Now before we go ahead and post up the email, think about the circumstances, I bust the city sending business over to the chief's wife's tag agency, a tag agency well outside the City of South Miami city limits.  According to my sources and the witnesses that I interviewed, the Chief routinely sent city business to his wife's tag agency, not only did he have people from the city travel ten or so miles to his wife's tag agency to transact business but according to several of the tag agency's ex employees, the chief would bring home tag work from the city and give it to his wife who would bring it back the following evening for the chief to bring back to the city.  All well and good, right?  As we now know, my version of events was good enough for not only the Miami Herald to pick up but it was credible enough that the Miami Dade County Ethics Commission went ahead and conducted an investigation into the matter and ultimately ended up charging the chief with four ethics violations.

Now, let's put the shoe on the other foot for a moment and look at things from the Chief's perspective.  According to the Chief, he had no idea that the city was taking business over to his wife's tag agency and in fact it was Major Ana Baixauli who approved and conducted these transactions without his knowledge.  Ok, for the sake of argument, let's be fair and say that the chief's explanation is plausible.  Now, if you were in the chief's position, how would you feel about this situation?  Think about it for a moment, some jerk with a blog on the last page of the internet outs some embarrassing business transactions between your employer and your wife's business, the Miami Herald picks up the story and further spreads this embarrassing story and all the while according to his explanation, he had nothing to do with the whole deal and even worse, the whole mess was orchestrated by one of his underlings, Major Baixauli, how would you feel if you were the chief?  I know if I was in his shoes, I'd be rip roaring mad, I'd of walked into the police department and ripped Major Baixauli a new asshole and held her responsible for what went down.  

Strangely enough, that's not what happened.  Instead of holding those that were allegedly accountable for this mess that was visited upon the chief, the chief goes ahead and sends out an email apologizing for the mess that he created, take a look at the email for yourselves...

Wait a minute!  WTF!

The chief's apologizing for sending business over to his wife's tag agency!  I thought it was Baixauli's fault?  What would the chief be apologizing if it wasn't his fault?  Why the hell isn't there an email or any kind of record for the chief reprimanding the Major?  LOL!

This is only the beginning of the email, we'll discuss the rest of the email tomorrow.  Till then, thanks again to the reader who sent me the email and as always, if you have something you'd like to send me anonymously, go to www.silentsender.com and fire away!

One can judge a man by the company he keeps.

So Greek playwright Euripides said.  If indeed that is true, then what can we say about the company embattled city of South Miami police chief Orlando Martinez de Castro keeps?  If indeed the person he copied in the email we discussed earlier this week was Camillo Padreda, then what does this say about the chief?  Before we get all philosophical, let's first look into Mr. Padreda's past, one of our readers was kind enough to forward us this transcript of a deposition that Mr Padreda gave back when he when he was a government witness against then Hialeah mayor Raul Martinez.  It's lengthy but worth the read and will make you wonder why the hell the chief is affiliated with this guy let alone let him hang around city hall.  Take a look and we'll discuss the highlights tomorrow...

  Camillo Padreda Testimony against Hialeah mayor Raul Martinez by   The Straw Buyer

Who is padcam@aol.com? The answer is in our comments section...

We left off last week with this lingering question, who is the person that City of South Miami Police Chief Orlando Martinez de Castro copying in an email from his city email account while soliciting business for his wife's insurance agency?  The chief carbon copied someone at "padcam@aol.com" in his email and we asked our readers who that email belonged to and we were given the answer in one of the comments on last Friday's post...

padcam = cam-pad = Camilo Padreda:
convicted felon, former president of Latin American Builders Assn., funded political campaigns & legal defense for Valerie Newman ("La Gorda"), tight personal friends with your chief.
Some old history:http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2003-01-30/news/a-friend-indeed/

Yikes!  Another reader goes on to say...

Why read the New Times article when when you can read Camilo's sworn testimony under cross examination of Raul Martinez's defense attorneys. Padreda copped a plea to falsifying a HUD financial statement so the Feds would not charge his daughter and under the plea he agreed to spill the beans on everybody. Padreda admitted to bribing County Commissioner Jorge Valdez, bribing City of Miami Commissioner Demetrio Perez (in Al Cardenas's office) missappropriating funds from Jefferson Savings Bank in Texas, hiding a 100K profit from a HUD property (Porta del Sol) in the form of a real estate commission, stiffing subcontractors out of 1.4M when he declared Bankruptcy, only to have his wife buy a 535K medical office weeks later, and falsifying a cost statement to HUD, His daughter was about to get indicted so Camilo copped a plea and agreed to sing on everybody including Raul Martinez so she wouldn't. This is the same "best friend of the (Miami) police who got Hector Mirabile promoted from Lieutennant to Major. Your hard earned tax dollars went to buy carpet from the Gibson Bethyl community center from his wife Janet Padreda's carpet company. Instead of installing padding for the weight room like what was budgeted, every big wig in the PD was getting their office measured for new carpet.

HUH?  What the hell is a law enforcement officer, let alone a chief of police doing copying this sort of unsavory fellow in emails sent from his city email address?!  Once again, from our comments section...

The answer to the question is the relationship between the OMG, CAMPAD and the acting manager goes back sometime.

I suppose "OMG" is the new moniker for Orlando Martinez de Castro, fair enough...

OMG joined LBA (despite not being a B) back when CamPad was boss and OMG was unemployed.

Nice.  Once again, I'll ask, if indeed padcam@aol.com is this Camillo Padreda character, why is the chief interacting with him while on city time let alone at all while in an official capacity?  And if this commenter is correct and this guys wife's carpet company is doing business with the city, his past certainly doesn't reflect well on anyone doing business with him or any of his affiliated companies.  We'll have to take a look at this carpet contract business and see what we can find.

The email that earned City of South Miami Police Chief Orlando Martinez de Castro one of his ethics charges...

After literally months of trying, I was finally able to get a copy of the email that earned embattled City of South Miami police chief Orlando Martinez de Castro one of the many charges from the Miami Dade County Ethics Commission.  From the Ethics Commission press release regarding the chief...

Airways is owned by Ileana Martinez de Castro, the police chief’s wife. She also owns Beck & Lo’s Insurance Agency, Inc. Last April, Chief de Castro used his city e-mail account to solicit business for his wife’s agency. The case will proceed to a public hearing.

That bit about the chief's wife owning the insurance agency isn't exactly correct as this document from Sunbiz shows...

  Orlando Martinez de Castro Insurance Agency by  

Based on what we see here, the chief himself is an officer of this insurance agency, regardless, let's take a look at that email...

  OMC Solicits Business by  

Now this email raises a few interesting points, first we clearly determine that the chief was sending these emails that had nothing to do with his job as police chief during business hours while he was being paid by the tax payers of the City of South Miami, specifically Wednesday April 6th at 4:19 pm.  The email is addressed to jrodriguez2813@comcast.net who I presume is someone named Jossie Rodriguez that's got something to do with the insurance business, as well as two others, the chief's wife and someone else that I was unable to identify whose email address is listed as "padcam@aol.com".  Any of our readers have any idea who this padcam email belongs to or why the chief copied this person on this email?  If you do, drop us a line.

So there you have it, granted this is just one email we found where the chief was conducting business that has nothing to do with the city on city time using his city email and city assets which is clearly a violation of his employment contract.  As I said yesterday, if a professional investigator was given the task of going through the last four or so years of the chief's emails and phone records I can only imagine how many other instances like this one they'd find.  The question again is why hasn't this been done yet?

An interesting thought...

I lay awake last night thinking about the Airways Auto Tag mess, the three girls that were railroaded by our favorite police chief, Orlando Martinez de Castro and asshat former MDPD detective Jorge Baluja when it dawned on me that the investigation into the alleged theft of tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars from the tag agency was done all wrong.

Considering the alleged theft occurred using computers and the internet, it seems to me that the jurisdiction wasn't correct.  See, the agency that investigated and subsequently arrested the three tellers was Miami Dade County, while they have the authority to do anything throughout the county, I would think that because the wires (internet, phone lines etc) were used, the proper jurisdiction would have been federal.  Take a look at the federal wire fraud statute and tell me what you think...

18 U.S.C. § 1343 provides:

Whoever, having devised or intending to devise any scheme or artifice to defraud, or for obtaining money or property by means of false or fraudulent pretenses, representations, or promises, transmits or causes to be transmitted by means of wire, radio, or television communication in interstate or foreign commerce, any writings, signs, signals, pictures, or sounds for the purpose of executing such scheme or artifice, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both. If the violation affects a financial institution, such person shall be fined not more than $1,000,000 or imprisoned not more than 30 years, or both.^[3]

See what I mean?  So why weren't the feds called in to investigate this case? It's simple.  If the feds did come in they would have done a proper investigation and Chief Martinez de Castro wouldn't have been able to influence the investigation the way he did with the county cops.  More importantly, I'm sure the feds don't have anyone nearly as stupid as former MDPD detective Jorge Baluja on their payroll!

Now, go back and review the events surrounding the Airways Auto Tag mess, tell me, how do you think a real cop would perceive things?  I wonder if it's worthwhile to give the feds a call.  What do you guys think?

So what about that ethics hearing that was supposed to happen this month?

Several months ago the Miami Dade Ethics Commission sent out a press release stating that they were going to move forward with a public hearing into the alleged ethics violations committed by City of South Miami police chief Orlando Martinez de Castro.  In case you missed it, here it is again...

Police Chief faces ethics violations
The police chief of South Miami is facing four charges of violating ethics laws for steering city business to his wife’s companies. The Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust (COE) today found probable cause that Chief Orlando Martinez de Castro violated South Miami’s “prohibition on transacting business with the city,” as well the County Conflict of Interest and Code of Ethics Ordinance’s “prohibition on exploitation of official position.” The complaint against Martinez de Castro (C 12-31) cites three times during 2011when the South Miami Police Department contracted with Airways Auto Tag Agency for tags and titles for forfeiture vehicles. Airways is owned by Ileana Martinez de Castro, the police chief’s wife. She also owns Beck & Lo’s Insurance Agency, Inc. Last April, Chief de Castro used his city e-mail account to solicit business for his wife’s agency. The case will proceed to a public hearing.

Shortly after the press release, our sources from within the ethics commission told us that the case was going to proceed to a public hearing at some point during January 2013.  Well, guess what?  Here we are smack dab in the middle of January 2013 and I haven't heard word about an ethics commission hearing regarding the police chief.  WTF is that about?

In fact, to add insult to injury, last Friday I was told that the hearing has been postponed till some time this summer!  HUH?

How the hell could that be?  From our standpoint, this seemed like a slam dunk, open and shut case, what in the hell is Joe Centerino and his cohorts on the ethics commission thinking about?  Isn't it amazing how quickly the ethics commission acts with certain politicians and how they drag their feet with others?  Could the ethics commission's decision to postpone the hearing have anything to do with embattled City of South Miami police chief Orlando Martinez de Castro's relationship with Centorino's former boss and state attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle?  Who knows, at the very least, this is a disappointing turn for Centorino's commission and possibly just another example of how when it comes to "let em go Joe" nothing has changed.

We'll drop the Ethics Commission an email and see what they have to say.

Conflicted?

We left off last Thursday discussing the possibility of a conflict existing between the State Attorney's office in the prosecution of a crime committed where the victim is actually a friend or relative of the state attorney.  If such an instance did occur, do you think it's possible for the victim to get a fair shake?  From our last post discussing the matter...

Indulge me for a moment, say that "friend" did make a call to Ms. Rundle and told her about the alleged wrong that had been done to them, would it be possible for Ms. Rundle to get personally involved in the case, perhaps maybe even taking the rookie line prosecutor that was handling the case off and reassigning a veteran prosecutor to make sure the case went down the way she wanted? 

Imagine for a moment if this very scenario did occur, can you imagine the tremendous amount of pressure that would be on the prosecutor to make sure he achieved a conviction against the alleged victims that supposedly committed a crime against the state attorneys friend or family member?  The possibility of failing to convict would leave me scared shitless!

So what's the point of all this talk of conflicts and such?  Is this a purely hypothetical situation?  I can't say for sure as I haven't been able to confirm but what I have been told by several different sources that are very, very close to City of South Miami Police Chief Orlando Martinez de Castro is that he is very, very close to our state attorney, Katherine Fernandez Rundle.  In fact, I'm told that the chief has told anyone that would listen that he was at Mr. Rundle's father's bedside when he passed away.  Can you get closer than that?

Now, if we accept the presumption that the chief and our state attorney are extremely close friends, perhaps as close as you can get without being related by blood, does it seem fair for her office to prosecute a crime that was allegedly committed against the chief or his family?  To me it seems like there's an obvious conflict of interest.  Somehow it seems to me that the prosecutors role might be compromised in this instance, what's that old saying about a prosecutors job?  Something about the "search for truth" rather than achieving a conviction no matter what, somehow with an obvious conflict like this one it seems like that "search for truth" may be second to "achieving a conviction no matter what".  While I'm not suggesting that would be the case with our state attorney, Katherine Fernandez Rundle, it could certainly be a possibility.

With that possibility of a conflict of interest in mind, let's take a look at the Airways Auto Tag case for a moment.  For those of you who've forgotten about the case, it's where the City of South Miami's police chief's wife alleges that three tellers who worked for her stole tens of thousands of dollars while working at her tag agency.  Of course, the case is being prosecuted by our local state attorneys office, the same state attorney that the police chief says that he has a very close if not almost familial relationship with.  Am I the only one that thinks there's a possible conflict of interest here by Ms. Rundle's office prosecuting this case?  If nothing else, in order to avoid any appearance of impropriety, shouldn't Ms. Rundle's office recuse themselves from prosecuting this case?  

I know if I was a defense attorney representing these tellers, that would have been my first move!

The police chief speaks out!

Or so we're to believe.  Someone using the user name "OMC" made a post over at the Leo Affairs website under the thread title "The Chief is in really deep $hit!", it reads as follows:

Re: The chief is really in deep $hit!

by OMC » 11/29/12 23:15:24

No, I am not! I am not going anywhere either, and IF the honorable mayor and commissioners want to force the incoming manager to fire me, go ahead and pay my exit! Until then, I am staying right here, doing what I do best . . . serving and protecting the citizens of South Miami.

No kidding?  If we are to believe that the person who made this post was indeed embattled City of South Miami police chief Orlando Martinez de Castro, this would make it the first public comment by the chief regarding the ongoing scandal that has arisen from the ethics investigation stemming from the alleged steering of city business to his wife's tag agency.

We also also have a hearing to look forward to this morning in the criminal case that is still pending against the chief's wife's three former tellers from her tag agency that were alleged to have stolen tens of thousands of dollars.  From all indications, the case is quickly falling apart as we speak and I'm told that if it does go to trial, it will do so within the next week.

On another note, I think it only fair to our readers for me to mention that I have been out of the loop since last Wednesday, my father passed away unexpectedly and I've been preoccupied dealing with his death and spending time with my family.  I'll do my best to keep up with the most recent developments with our stories but if you see that I don't post for a few days here and there at least you'll know why.

Till next time!

The New Times gives us a mention!

Happy Thanksgiving! Our friend, Francisco Alvarado, gave us a mention over at the New Times today, take a look for yourselves. We were honored to name soon to be former City of South Miami Police chief our ham! From the article...

Mike Hatami, the Strawbuyer: Orlando Martinez de Castro, South Miami Police Chief
"I don't have a turkey, but I do have a big ham. Martinez de Castro acts like a general running an army in a third-world dictatorship. He has abused his official position to pressure the state attorney's office into prosecuting three innocent women who worked at his wife's auto tag agency.

The Miami-Dade ethics commission recently found probable cause that Martinez de Castro also violated South Miami's prohibition on transacting business with relatives and the county's conflict of interest and ethics ordinance because he had the police department use his wife's tag agency to get tags and titles for forfeiture vehicles.

When several South Miami elected officials got wise to his shenanigans, Martinez de Castro used his officers to attack his political enemies. For instance, he had Warren Popove, a Canadian national who did odd jobs for Commissioner Bob Welsh, picked up by ICE. Now poor Papove is sitting in a jail cell at Krome Detention Center.
In June, Castro arrested Mayor Phillip Stoddard's friend Michael Davidson-Schmich for resisting arrest without violence. Castro was upset that Davidson-Schmich had the gumption to make a hand gesture to the chief for making an illegal turn.

These are tactics employed by secret police officers in Cuba. It's no coincidence Orlando shares the same last name as Fidel."

LULZ! Have a happy holiday folks, we'll see you on Friday!

An interesting comment regarding the firing of City of South Miami city manager Hector Mirabile...

Early this morning one of former City of South Miami city manger Hector Mirabile's supporters left this comment on yesterdays blog post...

As we type, there is a countermeasure developing where the Governor was asked to intervene and investigate. When wrong doing is found, negative consequences will follow for those implicated in the manager’s dismissal and the conspiracy to remove the police chief.

We got friends too!

Whoever wrote this post would want us to believe that our Governor, Rick Scott, is going to intervene in city politics and get involved in the firing of the city manager?  LOL!  

That's some of the funniest shit I've heard in a while, this guy expects the governor to get involved in reinstating a city manager that was fired by the majority of the city commission.  Good luck with that!

I'm going to cut it short today as I'm on the way to meet an old friend of Mr. Mirabile who promises to be an entertaining source of information regarding the chief and his pal Hector's escapades during their tenure as City of Miami cops...