From what we've heard through the grapevine, Commissioner Marc Sarnoff pulled the right levers and got the blog that had uncovered his nefarious activities shut down. From the Investigation Miami Blog we get this:
We also got some really creepy information yesterday about a meeting on Monday at the Miami Police Department's Internal Affairs Office. That meeting was ostensibly held with Marc Sarnoff, Chief Exposito, an assistant chief and head of IA, Al Alvarez. Alvarez and Sarnoff are very close - Alvarez was Marc and Teresa Sarnoff's police chauffeur for several years. Alvarez reportedly continues to spend hours and hours every week in Sarnoff's office despite having become a member of the brass with his appointment to head of IA. The information we were given is there was going to be an attempt to shut the blogs down because Sarnoff is really, really, really pissed off about our posts. But really, I can't imagine that could be done by a two-bit cabal of those "Einsteins."
So much for first amendment rights and freedom of speech huh?
Regardless, for those of you familiar with our blog and one of the many mortgage fraud cases we've written about, the Bernardo Barrera mortgage fraud case, you'll remember we initially learned about the cop that was involved with that case, Jorge Baluja, through records that were available online from the Miami Dade County website. The records in question were the findings of the Miami Dade County Independent Review Panel that investigated the Blanton Harris traffic accident that Detective Baluja screwed up royally. Matt Meltzer wrote about the incident on the Miami Beach 411 website. We also learned last year that due to budget cuts, Miami Dade County was going to cut the funding for the Independent Review Panel. Doesn't that make sense? Why not cut out a panel comprised of citizens that investigates complaints against cops and other county officials? Who the hell needs these trouble makers anyway? In fact, if we go back to the minutes of one of the meetings of the Independent Review Panel you can see the disdain against the IRP from the Miami Dade County Police Departments top brass...
That's too bad ain't it? The police Chief is worried about his reputation being tarnished because the Independent Review Panel exposed him and his cronies sweeping an internal affairs case under the rug? The IRP answers with this...
Right on! Are you guys nuts?! The IRP busts you guys and you want there findings taken offline? Nice work IRP!
Everythings GONE! Just like that, someone in the command staff of the MDPD complains and POOF! Any evidence of their malfeasance disappears! WTF! Don't fret though folks, we still have copies of both reports. Here's the IRP's report and findings regarding the Blanton Harris traffic accident...
Although the Miami Dade.gov page says these pages might be "temporarily unavailable", they've been this way for months. Considering what we've seen recently regarding the Miami for Change blog being taken down, does any of this surprise anyone?
What a day. From the $40 million dollar Federal Mortgage Fraud bust to some serious and JUICY new information on the lead detective in our tale of mortgage fraud, Jorge Baluja. I must apologize to our readers here, I got caught up looking into the people who were charged and the states victim, I didn't take a close enough look at the Detective who was at the head of this investigation. Big news, I need a drink.
Oh well!So I'm running around today doing my normal daily routine and my phone rings with an email directing me to this story.HOLY CRAP! ARE YOU FCUKING KIDDING ME!? I had to pull my dumb ass over and reread this thing a couple of times. I was so shocked that I ran over to a computer and did a little looking myself. Lo and behold, a quick Google search leads me to this report from the Miami Dade County Independent Review Board and the minutes from the last hearing regarding the incident.That's some heavy crap for Detective Jorge Baluja. But again, after reading this report for some reason or another, my SPIDEY SENSES started tingling again.
Disbelief. The story about this, the simplest of ALL POSSIBLE TRAFFIC STOPS gone wrong is just too much to comprehend. How could this cop turn a traffic accident investigation and report into something so screwed up that it ended up being a shitstain on the personnel files of the top brass of the MDPD INCLUDING THE CHIEF OF POLICE! How the hell did Chief Leonard Burgess feel having to take the day off to attend this public slap in the face? My goodness. Can you imagine what it must have been like for Detective Jorge Baluja to be at the center of this mess and then on top of it have to attend this hearing where his superiors got BITCH SLAPPED? You would think that this incident would be burned into Baluja's mind, something that he must have run through his mind a million times both before and after the Internal Affairs investigation and the subsequent Independent Review Panel hearing. So what was Detective Baluja's recollection of the incident when asked during the investigation? Ready for it? He said:
"...he did not recall if he was working on that date."
EXCUSE ME? He was then shown a picture of Mr. John Oscar, one of the drivers involved in the traffic crash and also the red sports utility vehicle that Mr. Oscar was driving. Officer Baluja looked at the photographs and replied that:
"...he did not recall the incident."
EXCUSE ME? WTF DID HE JUST SAY? Let me get this straight, this cop creates a mess so big that it turns into an internal affairs investigation which leads to a reprimand for himself, partner and the top brass of the MDPD? He can't remember a life changing event like this? Wow.
Moving along, regardless of the fact that the detective excluded important facts, eyewitness testimony and completely neglected undeniable physical evidence from a simple accident investigation, he then goes on to lie about whether or not he remembered the incident. Ok. Pardon my language here, IF YOU CAN FCUK UP THE SIMPLEST OF ACCIDENT INVESTIGATIONS AND CANT REMEMBER THE MESS YOU CREATED LATER ON, THEN HOW IN THE FCUK ARE YOU SUPPOSED TO INVESTIGATE A COMPLEX CRIME LIKE MORTGAGE FRAUD!?
What the hell is actually required to become a detective in the MDPD?! I mean after hearing how he bungled up this accident investigation, ITS NO WONDER THAT HE MISSED ALL THE BASIC FACTS AND ALL THE WARNING SIGNS IN THE MORTGAGE FRAUD INVESTIGATION! This simple fact scares the living crap out of me. This cop who doesn't have a modicum of common sense is out there destroying peoples lives? First Blanton Harris (the owner of the truck that got rear ended) and now the defendants in this case. At the very least we know that two of the co defendants in the mortgage fraud case were guilty of something, BUT WHAT THE HELL DID THIS MENTAL GIANT THAT IS JORGE BALUJA HAVE ON THE ATTORNEY?
Moving right along! I made a little post at the end of the story on Miami Beach 411 to get a little traffic over here and BOOM! My email starts going nuts throughout the course of the afternoon and evening. I got the following:
Detective Jorge Baluja's education was limited to a High School Diploma.
Before he came to work at the MDPD, he had a job helping passengers with baggage at Royal Caribbean Cruise lines.
Detective Jorge Baluja spends a great deal of time online while at the office.
OK! No education past high school and he worked at a cruise line. But what about this spending time online at the job? Whats that all about? Turns out our good ole detective spends a great deal of his time playing around on social networking sites, cruising ebay and craigslist! Seems like he's got some colleagues that don't hold him in such high regard either. See the problem here? To date I've only spent less than half an hour total online researching this case and look at the MAJOR facts that we've found that turn this detectives case on its ear. Maybe if Baluja spent less time playing around online while on COUNTY TIME, he could have properly investigated this case the way it should have been done.
My conclusion after all these new developments today is that Jorge Baluja HAS NO PLACE INVESTIGATING ANYTHING. He's shown us that his investigatory skills are laughable and his powers of deductive reasoning are NON EXISTENT. I was thinking that perhaps Baluja is more suited to reading parking meters, but it seems like when it comes to Jorge, even the parking meters know what time it is...
I want to thank those who've sent me information on the Detective and PLEASE KEEP IT COMING (thestrawbuyer@gmail.com)! Rest assured your anonymity is guaranteed. Something tells me that this story is going to get A LOT MORE INTERESTING REAL QUICK!
I read a story in the Miami Herald on October 7, 2008 regarding a mortgage fraud case that didn't make any sense to me, I did a little digging and what I found left me stunned. A tale of a task force head whose political ambitions have run amuck, a detective without a modicum of common sense, a reporter that prints anything that's put in front of him, the railroading of an attorney by this machine to further the ambitions of its head and the lengths that those involved will go to in order to salvage a case that should have never been. Please take the time to start from the oldest post first and enjoy...
