Taking another look at Armando Codina's second deposition for the Michelle Spence-Jones bribery case.

We discussed certain elements of Mr. Codina's deposition last Friday as outlined by our friend Francisco Alvarado in his Miami New Times article.  Specifically the New Times story discussed Mr Codina's displeasure with the prosecutor who took a statement from him regarding his donation to Dade Community Foundation that was to be used for a charity event to honor Barbara Carey-Schuler after telling Mr. Codina that the event never happened and that Spence-Jones pocketed the money for her own use.  
 
The problem is that the event did happen and once Mr. Codina found out, he said the prosecutor had mislead him...

"You told me there had not been an event," Codina told Scruggs. "You told me that the charity was a fake and that she had used the money as her own piggybank...that no event had taken place and that she had pocketed the money." 

The prosecutor went ahead and based his case against Spence-Jones on this flawed testimony from Mr. Codina, while several other people have written about the first part of the deposition where Mr. Codina confronts the prosecutor for misleading him, no one has mentioned anything about Mr. Codina's cross examination by Spence-Jones defense attorney Peter Raben, take a look for yourselves...

Q. My client has been charged with grand theft in that acquiring $12,500 contribution from you in March has been charged under the Florida statute saying it was a theft.  As you sit here today, do you believe that you were the victim of a theft by my client?


A. No.


Q. Okay, do you believe that you donated money or you made this contribution as a result of fraud, a willful misrepresentation or false premise by my client?


A. I made the contribution because of what was on that e-mail, and as I know it today, my money was deposited at the Dade Community Foundation, so I would have to say no.  

Can it get any clearer than that?

THE WITNESS:  I said, as I know today, the money was deposited in the Dade Community Foundation, so I would have to say no, I don't think that I was defrauded.

Just in case it wasn't clear enough!

Q. When you say you think you were defrauded at one time, is that based upon the statements that were made to you by Mr. Scruggs when you met with him?

A. Yes, sir.

Yikes!

Q.  Okay, and in terms of what the money was going to be for, would you agree that it was an unrestricted gift to the charity to be administered at the discretion of  the Dade Community Foundation?

A.  Yes.  If  Dade Community Foundation deemed it to be a legitimate charity, I'm perfectly okay with that.  I can't replace my judgment for theirs.

Q.  You trusted their judgment? 

A.  Yes, I trust them.  I trust the Dade Community Foundation to a large degree.

Based on the testimony we just read, where does that leave the states case against Spence-Jones?  If indeed the testimony Mr. Codina originally gave was obtained by the prosecutor lying and misrepresenting the facts that lead up to her arrest then it seems to me there's nothing left.  

Let's see what the jury thinks...

Michelle Spence- Jones in the news again and why the hell does Veldora Arthur still have her job?

.

Great question, right?  Francisco Alvarado of the Miami New Times reports on another major flaw in the states bribery case against former City of Miami Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones in today's edition of Riptide.  Apparently Armando Codina, the states key witness against Spence-Jones is alleging that the assistant state attorney prosecuting Spence-Jones was somewhat less than honest about the facts of the case during his deposition which yielded the most injurious testimony against the former commissioner.  From the New Times article...

In a deposition taken this past February 16, Codina -- a former business partner of Jeb Bush -- implies that Miami-Dade State Attorney Richard Scruggs misled him into believing Spence-Jones stole $12,500 he had donated for an event honoring former County Commissioner Barbara Carey-Shuler.

This isn't the first time this has happened during the states quest to put Spence-Jones behind bars, just a few months ago we learned that Barbara Carey-Shuler, another key witness in a separate case against Spence-Jones suddenly remembered during a deposition that the allegations she made about Spence-Jones forging a letter authorizing the release of $50,000 to her company were untrue and in fact the letter was genuine.  Once again, from the New Times article...

"Whose handwriting is that?" Raben asked Carey-Shuler. "It's mine," she replied.

When Raben quizzed her if the final version -- the one prosecutors alleged was a forgery -- was "genuine," Carey-Shuler said: "That's correct."

So now what?  The testimony that was the cornerstone of both of the states cases against Spence-Jones just went up in smoke as both the key witnesses claimed that they were lied to   mislead by the prosecutors who built the cases against Spence-Jones using their coerced testimony.

Let's not forget though that the minute the charges were announced against Spence-Jones there was a press conference followed by Governor Charlie Crist immediately suspending her from her position as commissioner.  Keep in mind that between the two cases Spence-Jones was accused of stealing roughly sixty to seventy five thousand dollars through her alleged nefarious activities.


Now, fast forward a few months to the Veldora Arthur federal mortgage fraud indictment, she's charged with participating in a scheme to defraud banks out of nearly ELEVEN MILLION DOLLARS and she's still got her job at the city collecting a hefty $300,000 per year?!  Not to mention that there was no press conference, no press release, nothing other than news of the indictment on some local blogs!  

What gives here folks?  On one hand we have a popular commissioner who was elected to her position by a landslide victory who immediately loses her job after being accused of stealing approximately $75,000 and on the other hand we have another city employee who's federally indicted for a massive eleven million dollar fraud and she's still got her job?  Even worse, a job where she's responsible for handling financial matters for the City?  

Why does Veldora Arthur still have her job?  Why hasn't she been immediately suspended without pay as Spence-Jones was?  Why the double standard?  The best the City of Miami Fire Department could do when asked why she wasn't suspended was this lame statement from their spokesman Ignatius Carroll...

"this has nothing to do with her role as fire chief...our guys don't carry guns"

She may not carry a gun, she carries the fire departments checkbook!