We're banned AGAIN!

How do you know that you're getting under the skin of the people that you're writing about?  Simple, they do whatever they can to stop your message from getting out!  Much like the way our website was banned from the City of Miami computers a few years back, one of our readers tells us that when you now go to a City of South Miami computer and try to get on to our site, you get this message...

What a shame!!  A few years ago I might have been upset but today with the proliferation of smart phones, I don't thin it really makes that much of a difference.  With that said though, anyone want to guess who's got control of the IT department over at the city?  If you guessed fatman, you guessed right!  I'm told that the IT department is run by a friend/hack of our favorite embattled police chief, Orlando Martinez de Castro.  No worries folks, the fact that we're banned from the city computers just goes to show how much of a pain in his ass we've become.

Thanks to the reader that sent me the screenshot from their city computer, as always if any of you folks over at the city, whether at city hall or at the police department, have a tip for me, feel free to drop me an email at thestrawbuyer@gmail.com or if you'd like to remain anonymous, use the services of www.silentsender.com.

Now, moving on, some of you have expressed displeasure with the postponement of the chief's ethics hearing into late spring or early summer.  Don't fret as the postponement doesn't mean that the chief is out of the woods, in fact the upside to the delay is that those working to oust the chief have more time to gather and present more evidence and testimony of wrongdoing to the ethics commission and other authorities and trust me, there's a lot more dirt on the chief coming.

On another note, we had an interesting comment on one of last weeks posts, take a look for yourselves...

AnonymousJanuary 9, 2013 at 8:49 PMSo how did the interview go between the Chief and New Times?

What exactly was that about?  Did the Chief interview the embattled City of South Miami police chief Orlando Martinez de Castro and if so, what exactly happened?  I'll do a little digging and see what we can find out....

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.

A rumor heard around the City of South Miami PD and a correction from yesterday's post.

There's a nasty rumor going on over at the City of South Miami PD the last couple of days.  Our sources at the PD are suggesting that embattled police chief, Orlando Martinez de Castro, is going to be suspended by the new city manager.  Like I said, at this point it's nothing but an unsubstantiated rumor and until which time I can provide some sort of proof we should treat it as such.  My sources also tell me that there are several members of the South Miami PD brass that are angling for the chief's job, I have to wonder though, considering that the chief has stacked his management team chock full of cronies, would the commission allow his replacement to be chosen from within the ranks?

On another note, the Miami Herald reporter that I quote yesterday as saying "Commissioner Harris was involved in a hit and run" contacted me and asked me to make a correction.  According the the Herald reporter the PD source told them that...

 "A South Miami commissioner was involved in a hit and run near Dadeland Mall".  

While it's not exactly what I had quoted, the source's intent was the same, to create a scandal when there wasn't one.

Stay tuned...

How not to make friends over at the City of South Miami Commission!

Over the last several years embattled City of South Miami police chief has enjoyed the support of the city commission, that is until we started shedding light on his nefarious schemes and unethical, perhaps illegal, activities.  Even after we exposed the chief's activities, he still enjoyed the support of three of the five city commissioners, specifically commissioners Newman, Liebman and Harris.  While commissioners Liebman and Newman still support the chief, recently Commissioner Harris has dropped his support for the chief and has become the swing vote in a number of important votes involving the chief, namely removing the code enforcement department and the city's parking department from the command and control of the chief, not to mention Tuesday's critical vote of no confidence.

With Commissioner Harris now firmly in the anti Orlando Martinez de Castro camp, the chief seems like he's now turned on his former ally.  You may remember that the chief and his cronies have been trying to flex their muscles on the other two commission members who were working to get rid of him, namely the Warren Papove mess that was used to some how exact revenge on Commissioner Welsh and that whole circus surrounding the break in at Mayor Stoddard's home that was designed to slander and embarrass the mayor. 

So logic would dictate that now that Commissioner Harris has switched sides, it's time for the chief to go after him, the way he chose to do so was rather embarrassing and fairly transparent.  The story starts with Commissioner Harris' wife Eda visiting a shopping mall called Dadeland Station located at 8312 South Dixie Highway.  At some point while leaving the mall, Mrs. Harris unknowingly bumped into a car parked next to hers, after pulling out of the spot, she then proceeded to go home.  A short while later, a Miami Dade Police Officer arrives at Mrs. Harris' home and informs her that she had bumped into a parked car while pulling out of the parking garage at the mall and issues her a ticket for leaving the scene of the accident.  To understand the severity of the "accident", one must first look at a photo of Mrs. Harris' car...

Upon first glance, there is no visible damage to the car.  After a closer look at the left front of the vehicle, there appears to be a couple of minor scratches to the front bumper, as always click on the photo to enlarge...

No big deal right?  It's barely noticeable  not to mention that the minor damage that's visible will more than likely buff out.  Whatever, shit happens, right?  The Miami Dade police officer goes ahead and writes a "Florida uniform traffic citation" that cites Mrs. Harris for "leaving the scene of an accident" which cites Florida statute 316.061(1) whose penalty is as follows:

A person who violates this subsection commits a misdemeanor of the second degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082 or s. 775.083. Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, $5 shall be added to a fine imposed pursuant to this section, which $5 shall be deposited in the Emergency Medical Services Trust Fund.

Big deal right?  Here's the ticket in question:

After receiving the ticket, Mrs. Harris is told that it would take three to four weeks to get a police report and that she should call the MDPD with the case number in order to check when the police report is ready.  All well and good right?  This is where things get interesting, now I'm told that two, you read that right, TWO city of South Miami police cars roll up to the Harris residence to deal with this situation.  Does that sound reasonable?  Four police cars in total roll up to a sitting commissioners home for a county cop write a ticket for an incident that occurred outside their jurisdiction?  WTF?  Even better, after being told by the MDPD that there wouldn't be a police report four several weeks, out of no where the City of South Miami pd prepares a report for the same incident on the SAME DAY!  WTF?!!!  Here's the City of South Miami police report...

But now according to the South Miami pd, this is no longer a matter of "leaving the scene of an accident" but instead a "hit and run".  Now, what comes to mind when you hear "hit and run"?  For me I picture something like this...

Not something like this...

Even better, according to the South Miami PD report, this accident didn't just involve Commissioner Harris' wife, they some how managed to get the Commissioner himself in to the report!  Now according the South Miami police report, one would be led to believe that the commissioner himself was involved in the accident.

WTF?!  What in the hell is this all about?  None of it made sense to me until I was told that there was a call from one of the local police departments to the Miami Herald stating that "Commissioner Harris was involved in a hit and run" after which the Herald dispatched one of their reporters to the South Miami PD to find out exactly what had gone on.  

Lame, lame, lame lame Chief.  This is the poorest excuse I've ever seen for creating a scandal.  What else would you expect though from a chief who's just weeks or perhaps days away from getting fired?  

City of South Miami commission decides that they have "no confidence" in their embattled police chief Orlando Martinez de Castro!

Just like that at Tuesdays city commission meeting, the commission voted, 3/2, that they do not have confidence in the city's embattled police chief, Orlando Martinez de Castro.  In my opinion that moves the chief one step closer to the door.  I guess you guys know how we feel about the subject...

After the "no confidence" vote, the commission went on to discuss taking away the control of the parking department from the chief.  What leaves me baffled is the assertions from Commissioner Newman and some of her cohorts that somehow the chief was responsible for boosting parking revenues and that the chief is on call 24/7 in case there's anything awry with the parking in the City of South Miami.  WTF?  Honestly, it's one thing to have us believe that the chief single handedly stopped all the crime in the city, but how the hell do you expect us to believe that parking revenues are up because of the chief's running of the parking department?  And once again, just like that, poof!  The commission went on to take away control of the parking department from the chief!

So what do you think chief?  Did you ever think a little over a year ago when we started writing about your wife's tag agency and the railroading of the poor tellers that you blamed for stealing tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars from her rinky dink three window tag agency that we'd end up here?  

Karma's a bitch, isn't it Chief?

City of South Miami Commission calls for a vote of no confidence on embattled chief Orlando Martinez de Castro!

As the title states, our sources tell us that the city of South Miami city commission will be calling for a vote of no confidence regarding embattled police chief Orlando Martinez de Castro.

I'm not exactly sure what the ramifications of such a vote would be if successful but one thing I can tell you for sure is that if the vote goes against the chief, it puts him one step closer to the door!

Here is the add on agenda item for this evening's commission meeting...

Orlando Martinez de Castro Lack of Confidence Resolution City of South Miami

Stay tuned, I'll update as soon as there's more info...

The start of a new year and a proposition for the Martinez de Castro clan.

Party's over.  After spending the last two or so weeks lounging around and doing nothing, it's back to the grind.  I apologize to our readers for not posting as I had promised during the holiday break, trust me, I really did need the time off.

Now, during the holiday break I had plenty of time to think things over, especially regarding the City of South Miami Police Chief Orlando Martinez de Castro and his upcoming hearing with the Miami Dade County Ethics Commission.  Since we started to write about the Chief and his wife's tag agency over a year ago, it never once dawned on me to see things from the Chief's perspective, I've always approached the subject of the chief's behavior and the situation with his wife's tag agency from my perspective, that is the perspective I was able develop from my examination of the documents associated with the various cases and incidents.  Perhaps there's an explanation for everything?  After all these years of writing about how unfair the cops and prosecutors are, have I found myself guilty of the same faults that I've accused them of making?  Whatever happened to "the presumption of innocence?"

With that said, I'd like to start the new year off on a new leaf and would like to afford both the Chief and his wife the opportunity to explain themselves.  I know that might sound a little outrageous to some, why would they want to talk to some jerk with a blog on the last page of the internet?  Let's not forget that it was our humble little blog that put the chief in the position he's in today where he risks losing his job if he's found guilty of the ethics violations that were levied against him and as far as his wife's tag agency and the three girls that they accused of stealing tens of thousands of dollars from, I suspect if not for our actions throughout the course of last year, the three girls would probably already be serving time behind bars.

So how about Chief?  I'd be more than willing to listen if you'd like to talk.  I'm sure by now you know how to reach me, I'll be waiting...