The root of all problems in Miami Dade county...

Before we start today, lets take a look at this quote from Thomas Jefferson regarding term limits where he urged the limitation of tenure...

"...to prevent every danger which might arise to American freedom by continuing too long in office..."

Brilliant and I must say rather obvious for extended terms in office breed cronyism and institutional corruption.  The other day when we began discussing former Miami state attorney Richard Gerstein, I had no idea that Mr. Gerstein was first elected state attorney back in 1956, that's 57 years ago.  Consider for a moment how many presidents have come and gone since 1956, I think this collage of presidential photos will illustrate my point the best... 

In case you missed it, that's eleven presidents since 1956, starting with Ike all the way to our current president.  With each change in presidents we get a change in administration, change in staff, change in policies, etc, for lack of a better term a sort of cleaning of house.  In many instances the change in presidents have brought about reversal of bad policies or practices that have shifted the course of our country, unfortunately in some instances the changes were for the worse as well.

Now, let's take a look at the situation over out the Miami office of the state attorney, once again we'll use a pictorial guide to show just how many state attorneys have been elected to that office since 1956 when Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected president of the United States...

That's right!  Just three state attorneys over the last nearly 60 years!  WTF?!

How does that make any sense?  Whenever you have someone in office for decades, the results are never good, like I said before, institutional corruption, cronyism, incapable employees not dealt with because they may know where some of the skeletons are buried, etc.  Employees sort of like that character from the movie Office Space...

Anyone whose been around the sao for more than five minutes can name at least a few career Reno era prosecutors that fit this bill.  If you have some time to waste, google "Bill Kostrzewski" for a perfect example of one such career prosecutor that has no business being a prosecutor.

Another problem with state attorneys who are around for decades is the political favoritism and cronyism that develops, former City of Miami Police chief said it best...

“The problem I have with her is that she is very aggressive against certain politicians or government workers, yet with others she takes the soft approach. She gives you all the reasons in the world to not go after them,”

Precisely.  We've all noticed that there are some local politicians and business people that no matter how damning the evidence, never seem to get in trouble?  Perfect example, David Rivera or our very own Tomas Regalado who both seem immune from prosecution despite the mountain of evidence of wrong doing against them.

I obviously have my own issues with our state attorney, for what it's worth thought, I'll admit that her office does a decent job of prosecuting the overwhelming majority of cases that go through their hands.  With that said though, there's no reason for any state attorney to be in office for two decades and be in such a powerful position that qualified candidates are afraid to run against her.  So tell me, why the hell haven't we put term limits in place for our state attorneys job?  Doesn't it make sense?  Two terms seems to be more than enough in my opinion?  What do you guys think?

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!

Could this be the end of the maquinitas?

We've extensively covered the battle over the illegal gaming machines that are all over Miami Dade county throughout the years, the most famous of which was the war between current City of Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado and Police Chief Miguel Exposito which ultimately ended in his unceremonious firing from the police department.  While Exposito's demise seemed like a fatal blow to those who hoped to rid our city of these illegal gaming machines, the recent scandal involving the Jacksonville-based Allied Veterans of the World that ultimately brought about the resignation of our very own lieutenant governor Jenifer "I'm not a lesbian" Carroll, lit a fire under the anti maquinita camp again which has now culminated with Florida Senate bill HB 155, from the Miami Herald Article regarding the bill...

House Panel Passes Bill To Outlaw Illegal Gambling MachinesMary Ellen Klas
The online slot machines operated by strip mall Internet cafes, adult arcades and Miami-based maquinitas will be officially outlawed under a bill passed by a House panel on Friday.
In a 15-1 vote, the House Select Committee passed the bill (HB 155) just days after state and federal authorities arrested 57 individuals with ties to Jacksonville-based Allied Veterans of the World, a purported veterans charity organization that ran an illegal gambling operation.
The House measure, sponsored by Rep. Carlos Trujillo, R-Miami, makes web-based gambling devices illegal because they are deemed games of chance and not games of skill, as promoters claim. Under the bill, promotional giveaways, like those offered by fast food restaurants or car dealers, will be allowed, but electronic casino-like games disguised as a sweepstakes or arcade game will be banned.
The bill was supported by an unusual coalition that included the Florida Chamber of Commerce, the pari-mutuel industry, the greyhound racing association and the Florida Baptist Convention. No one spoke in support of preserving or regulating the Internet cafes.
The bill clarifies existing law by prohibiting electronic gambling devices for charitable promotions, updates the definition of slot machines to include network-based machines like those used in Internet cafes and bans machines intended to simulate casino games and slot machines.

FINALLY!

Trujillo said the legislation was needed because these cases are "extremely difficult to prosecute and extremely costly...The operators and promoters are very creative and they basically skirted around state law and it comes down to a battle of experts. And the experts have to decide, are these games of skill or games of chance?"

You don't say? Even when experts decide that the machines are illegal, somehow the crooks in the City of Miami still make it impossible to get rid of them! Remember the scandal around the expert witness report that we obtained last year?

The Senate on Monday is set to take up a bill that is “similar or identical to the House’s bill,’’ said Sen. Garrett Richter, R-Naples, chairman of the Senate Gaming Committee. Legislative leaders expect to have the bill reach the governor’s desk by the end of the month.

It's rather obvious that the casino and para-mutual lobby are the ones that are behind this legislation and why the hell not?  Theoretically these guys have legal gambling establishments that are highly regulated by the state, so why shouldn't they protect their businesses?  Remember how the expert witness characterized the maquinitas when compared to legal gaming machines?

In a legal gambling jurisdiction, such as Nevada, New Jersey, or Mississippi, the discovery of a reflexive percentaging scheme in an acknowledged slot machine, would cause Gaming Inspectors to turn that machine off immediately, and would result in fines and disciplinary action for the casino responsible.

Once again, from the Herald article...

Internet cafes are not regulated by the state, but have been allowed to operate under regulation in several municipalities, including Hialeah and Jacksonville. Police have succeeded in closing down operators in some areas while in others courts have ruled the law is too vague to prevent them from operating.

Finally, it looks like by the end of the month the maquinitas will be history and with them goes the underground economy they support along with the worthless shitbag politicians they back.  The lack of funding from the illegal gaming industry in Miami should make for an interesting upcoming election season.

Fighting crime, City of Miami style!

As we discussed a few months ago, crime in the City of Miami is up 10.7%, so how does the city deal with it?  Do they put more cops on the street?  NOPE!  The easiest way to deal with the increase in crime is to simply have police chief Oroso's administration lie about the crime stats!  Our friend Al Crespo does a bang up job exposing this blatant cover up in his piece today where he tears apart the City of Miami PD's annual report where it seems like they simply cut and paste the stats from 2010 into the 2012 report!


Even worse than the fraudulent statistics is this god awful organizational chart found within the report...

The same backstabbers that conspired against former Chief Miguel Exposito and ultimately did him in.  There isn't a more deserving bunch to be at the helm of this wreck that is the police department today.  I hate to use the same pic again but it's so fitting...

While Miguel Exposito wasn't the best police chief in the city's history, he was certainly better than this barely literate crew of misfits that run the PD today.  Congrats Mayor Regalado, NICE JOB!

On another note, the City of South Miami's Police Chief's wife is being deposed again today in the Airways Auto Tag agency case, this should be an interesting afternoon, we'll update tomorrow...

Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain...

You all remember that scene from the Wizard of Oz, don't you?  It's when Dorothy and her crew discover that the Wizard is nothing more than an ordinary man operating a machine from behind a curtain...

There are those who say that that is precisely what's going on in the City of Miami, if you buy into this theory, the elected officials are nothing more than pawns that are controlled by powerful lobbyists and influence peddlers.  Some say that one of the most powerful men "behind the curtain" in the current Regalado regime is a fellow named Armando Gutierrez, our friend Al Crespo goes so far to call him the "phantom mayor".  From Al's website...

"Armando Gutierrez, bon vivant, uber-lobbyist, campaign manager to Tomas Regalado, and considered by many to be the Phantom Mayor of Miami.
Since becoming Mayor, Gutierrez has seldom been far from Regalado’s side - as evidenced by the above photo where he is getting out of the Mayor’s SUV..."

Whatever the case may be, there's no denying that Mr. Gutierrez has some level of influence within the City of Miami and there's no doubt he's definitely part of Mayor Tomas Regalado's inner circle.  Mr Gutierrez is also known as the go to guy in Miami if you're looking to get elected for any kind of position, be it city, county or state wide, some elected officials have even gone so far as to say that in order to run any successful campaign, Mr. Gutierrez and his cadre of associates and their respective companies have to be on your payroll.

So what's this got to do with anything?  Why are we restating the obvious again?  While I really don't buy into this "phantom mayor" theory, I can't discount the influence Mr. Gutierrez has within the City of Miami, especially in all Regalado related matters.  One of the most contentious issues of Mayor Regalado's tenure to date has been the ongoing war between his former police chief, Miguel Exposito and his administration over the alleged illegal gaming machines that are littered throughout the city which ultimately ended with the police chief being fired.  Now, if you buy into the theory that Mr. Gutierrez is the "phantom mayor" of the City of Miami, an enemy of the mayor by default is an enemy of Mr. Gutierrez, correct?  

Take a step back for a moment and revisit that three judge panel that heard and ultimately ruled against ex Chief of Police Miguel Exposito's appeal to get his job back a few weeks ago.  While I sharply criticized one of the judges for her less than stellar record on the bench and was about to write another diatribe about the other two judges on that panel, let's put all that aside for the time being.  For the moment, let's operate under the theory that Mr. Gutierrez is indeed the "phantom mayor" and is "the man behind the curtain" that's running the city.  During the weeks before former police chief Miguel Exposito's appeal was to be heard, there were some strange scheduling conflicts going on, the hearing kept getting bounced back between courthouses and judges until we ended up with the hearing taking place at the Justice Building before judges Hirsch, Manno-Schurr and Lindsey.  What's the big deal, three random judges to hear an appeal, right?  Remember, we're operating under the phantom mayor & influence peddler theory here, a quick glance at the campaign finance records of two of the three judges presents an interesting clue as to what may have gone on at this hearing...

Well spank my ass and call me Charlie!  Two of the three judges that heard the Exposito appeal employed Mr. Gutierrez as a "consultant" during their campaigns for circuit court judge!  As you can see in the bits outlined in red, both Valerie Manno-Schurr and Milton Hirsch paid Mr Gutierrez and his companies $15,000 each.  

Now, if you believe that Mr. Gutierrez is as powerful as people say he is, is it too far fetched to believe that the judges returned a favor to Mr. Gutierrez and his associates in the city by ruling against Exposito?  Nah, that shits crazy, nobody would believe anything as outrageous as that!  There's no way a sitting judge would sell their soul and return a favor to a man that allegedly helped them get their seat on the bench, right?  that would never happen, especially in a place like Miami...

Former City of Miami Police Chief Miguel Exposito loses round one in his bid to get his job back...

I'm sure you've all heard by now that former City of Miami Police Chief Miguel Exposito has lost his appeal to get his job back before a panel of three circuit court judges.  The opinion was written by none other than circuit court judge Valerie Manno Schurr, check it out...


Expositio Circuit Court Decision


That's all well and good, I don't necessarily agree with the courts findings and I'm sure former chief Exposito will be taking his case to a higher court.

Valerie Manno Schurr

So how about the judge who wrote this opinion, the honorable Valerie Manno Schurr?  From what I've been able to glean from various sources, her rulings have been reversed by higher courts in 45% of her cases that have been appealed.  You have to ask yourself, what kind of judge gets nearly half of her rulings that are taken to appeal reversed?  Does that seem like the hallmark of a judge that knows what shes doing?  Take a look at some of these excerpts from various appeal court rulings against Manno Shurr and judge for yourself...

“the trial court violated a clearly established principle of law and departed from the essential elements of law by indefinitely staying this action.”

Nice.

“There is no competent evidence on either ground adopted by the trial court to support its conclusion..."

LOL.

“trial court abused its discretion...”

DOH!

“we conclude that the circuit court appellate division departed from the essential requirements of the law and deprived State Farm of due process.”

Isn't that special considering that part of Exposito's appeal hinged on "due process"?

As if all that weren't enough, here comes the icing on the cake, everyone remember the two foster kids that were adopted by the Barahona family that were tortured by their foster parents where one sibling was found dead on the side of the road bathed in acid while the other was on the verge of dying? These poor kids suffered untold beatings at the hands of their foster parents, when their biological family tried to take the kids away from their foster parents before the gruesome roadside incident that we all watched unfold on TV, guess who was the judge who denied their pleas and kept the poor kids with their foster parents? You guessed it...

Judge Manno-Schurr denied the children a chance at a safe, normal life when she turned away pleas in 2007 to adopt the twins from their biological uncle and aunt, Isidro and Ana Reyes. Ana is the sister of the father of the twins. They told Judge Manno-Schurr that they could take care of the children, and provided references and financial statements to prove their worthiness.
Yet, Judge Manno-Schurr said no, preferring to keep the siblings in the foster care of the Barahonas. The DCF says that decision was “based on an incorrect assumption by all professionals involved in the case that it would be harmful for children of this age to experience a change in parents.”
When asked why Judge Manno-Schurr didn’t listen to the Reyes couple, their attorney, Steven Grossbard, said, “That is a piece of the puzzle that is not clear to me to this day, and I find it somewhat troubling.”

I guess you can tell by now that I'm somewhat disappointed by the courts ruling in the Exposito case, disappointed but not surprised. Considering the track record of the judge heading the panel, I expected no less. No worries though, I'm sure considering former Chief Exposito's tenacity and Judge Manno Schurr stellar record on appeal, Expo will be back again, take my word for it.

The Exposito appeal hearing...

I'd like to preface today's post by saying I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to transferring audio recordings off my phone to my computer then on to YouTube.  I have to admit, I've been trying to do this for nearly a week with little to no success, that is till last night when I finally managed to upload all 35 minutes of the hearing to YouTube.

While the various media outlets had there own interpretation of what went on at the hearing, now you can listen to it yourselves and draw your own conclusions.  Although I've uploaded the recordings to YouTube, there are no videos, just audio.  First we'll start with Exposito attorney Steven Wisotsky's opening argument...

Now you'll hear City of Miami assistant attorney John Greco make the case for the city...

And last but not least attorney Wisotsky's rebuttal before the three judge panel...

So there you have it.  We'll discuss tomorrow...

How to fire a police chief in the City of Miami...

With all the dispute recently regarding former City of Miami Police Chief Miguel Exposito appealing the city commissions decision to fire him, I think it's important to take a look at one of Exposito's main arguments for getting his job back, the fact that the commission didn't convene and render judgement in the time period specified by the City of Miami Charter Section 26.
First, let's take a look at the city charter...
Miguel Exposito City of Miami Charter Section 26
Specifically, the most important part is as follows...

Sec. 26- Suspension and removal of chief of police and fire chief.
The city manager shall have the exclusive right to suspend the chief of police and fire chief for incompetence, neglect of duty, immorality, drunkenness, failure to obey orders given by proper authority, or for any other just and reasonable cause.  If either of such chiefs be so suspended the city manager shall forthwith certify the fact, together with the cause of suspension, to the commission who within five (5) days from the date of receipt of such notice, shall proceed to hear such charges and render judgement thereon, which judgement shall be final.

That bit of the city charter is one of the main arguments that Exposito and his legal team are using to invalidate the city commission's ruling against him...

...the commission who within five (5) days from the date of receipt of such notice, shall proceed to hear such charges and render judgement thereon...

There's very little room for interpretation there, once the commissions notified of the suspension, they have five days to hold a hearing and render judgement.  Simple right?  So simple that during the termination hearing, City of Miami Commissioner Francis Suarez, who happens to be an attorney, even went so far as to say that if the chief didn't agree with the commissions findings, he could go back appeal and be reinstated because the commission didn't abide by section 26 of the city charter.  So wtf?  Aren't these rules in place for a reason?  Strictly based on the letter of the law, Mr Exposito should be entitled to get his job back since the commission didn't convene and render judgement within the five day period as outlined in the charter.  Whether the court who heard his case last week will rule in his favor or not is a different story.


I'm currently trying to upload my recordings of last weeks hearing online, if I'm successful we'll get to hear first hand both Exposito and the City of Miami's arguments k;in this case.

Illegal gaming machines are illegal...

No shit?  Sounds like a pretty stupid title for today's post right?  Of course illegal gaming machines are illegal!  

In case you forgot, the expert witness who examined over a hundred of these illegal gaming machines (AKA maquinitas) concluded that not only were the machines indeed nothing more than slot machines whose outcome had nothing to do with the players skills and because of the way they were configured, they were designed to cheat the poor folks that were playing them.  From the report...

This morphing permits the machine's computer to defeat any attempt at skill, and to deliver an outcome that was chosen in advance by the computer. Not only is this machine designed and manufactured specifically for the purpose of gambling; it is also designed to cheat the customer.

OK, I'm sure by now you all get it and are sick of hearing about how the machines are illegal, etc, etc, etc...

Let's forget about the machines being illegal for a moment, forget about the fact that they're designed to screw the players and the fact that they circumvent any revenue generating taxing scheme for the city or state.  Back during the summer of 2010, City of Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado championed an ordinance to regulate coin operated amusement machines which in essence was a ploy to legalize the maquinitas that we've become so fond of talking about.  If you bought into Regalado's theory, since the maquinitas are nothing more than coin operated "amusement machines" rather than have them scattered about the city, his plan was to create a law that required each and everyone of these machines to be licensed and by doing so creating an additional revenue stream for the city.  Check out how he pitched it to the city commission back in June 24, 2010...

Mayor Tomás Regalado:  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, members of the Commission.  FR.2 is an ordinance on first reading.  I would tell you that this ordinance, the final product, is the result of several month [sic] working with the Law Department, with the Finance Department, and the Administration to have this ordinance in place.  The reason that we did a new approved moratorium on the sale of stickers or license for coin-operated machines -- and this moratorium will be in place until September -- is precisely because we went -- we were working on this ordinance and it needed a lot of research.  We met with the chief of Police.  We met with the Finance Department; of course, the Law Department was there.  We also met with the representative of Magic City Casino that will be opposing this ordinance.  However, I think that we need to hear from the Finance Department because what this ordinance does is rectify a process that has been wrong for the last years.  We -- if we pass this ordinance, we will know exactly where each machine is; now, we don't.  In the past, there were some machines that were seized, but at the end, the courts ruled one way or another.  And there's still hundreds of machines in the City of Miami.  

OK, so now the Mayor wants to lump together these maquinitas with all other types of coin operated machines and license them, therefore in his eyes, the maquinitas are no different than say a pinball machine or a coin operated PacMan machine.  He goes on...

Mayor Regalado: But if I may, Commissioner, 90 percent of the ordinance is to regulate the machines because now we don't know where the machines are.  Actually, I think the Manager went and look at a number of the machine and called the Finance Department, and he can -- they couldn't say where that machine was because it was one of the hundreds of the stickers that are running around.  If we do this ordinance, then we will know where each machine, each stickers belongs to, what address, and who pulled that permit.  If an inspector or a police officer goes and see that the machine has been altered, because it has to be altered to use that machine for gambling purposes, then there will be a civil fine of $500 to the person that operate the business.  And there's also a caveat that could be included that if a business is operating a gambling machine, then the City has the right to pull the occupational license, which is an extreme measure, but it's part of the regulation.  So the other thing is that now we do not have the manpower to monitor those machines.  They're everywhere.  But if we do this ordinance, then Finance will have the possibility of having their inspector checking each of the places and also checking occupational license, which many in the City don't have.  We have -- I mean, we have a list officially of 13 -- 14,311 occupational license for business [sic] in the City of Miami.  I imagine that there are more that don't have occupational license.  I've seen one, at least.  I've seen one business operator with no license at all.  And we do not have the manpower to go door-by-door.  But I just think that we have several options.  We have the options of keeping the moratorium, not selling any license; keeping the process as it is, selling $480 and you get all the stickers; or changing the Code so we can regulate more, and we could use the revenue to check on the machines.  Actually, we're not condoning or inciting this kind of practice because it's already there.  I mean, in the past, there were a group of police officers that every night went to cafeterias and they took down some of the machines.  Some of the people went to court.  City, I believe, won two cases.  City lost, as you know, several cases.  Many cases were dismissed.  So many, many cases were dismissed because of the arrests that were made that were not good arrests and all that.  So this is the intent to regulate.  

Whatever the fuck ever.  According to this new plan, the machines are all going to get licensed and not only will the city enjoy the revenues from these licenses but according the mayor, the city will also know where each and everyone of the machines are for whatever that's worth.   He concludes with this...

 And I do understand what you are going to hear from Magic City Casino.  You know, they have a casino, but it's different.  You get money and you get -- and the machines are not supposed to give you back.  It's illegal.  It's in the ordinance.  It's in the affidavit.  And anybody who does that will be fined and the machine will be confiscated.  So I just wanted to state that.  

Huh?  Does that make any sense to you?  Try it again...

And I do understand what you are going to hear from Magic City Casino.  You know, they have a casino, but it's different.  You get money and you get -- and the machines are not supposed to give you back.  It's illegal.

I'm not even going to try to make sense of that.  So let's disregard the fact that the machines the mayor is talking about in this ordinance are illegal and for the sake of argument lets say that they're nothing more than coin operated machines that are for amusement purposes only.  By licensing these machines and making their owners pay some sort of tax, in the eyes of our mayor and the City of Miami, these machines are now magically legal.  That's all well and good if you can overlook the fact that the mayor has essentially given a free pass to all the maquinita owners.  So what's this ordinance from nearly two years ago have to do with our story?  Old news you say?  Correct, it is old news, in fact the owners of these "maquinitas" have had two years to get licenses for their machines and therefore theoretically, the City of Miami by now has been collecting at least two years worth of license revenues from the machines that are littered all over the city.  


All good right?  All would be good if that was really the case, let's go back for a moment and take a look at those machines located in the first floor of the building that houses the Spanish radio station, 670 AM "La Poderosa" that we talked about a few days ago, if you remember, we found three "maquinitas" in the cafeteria that's located on the buildings first floor.  Take a closer look at the machines again and see if you can spot any of those coin operated amusement license decals that the mayor was championing back in the summer of 2010...

Would you look at that?  Not a single decal, sticker or any sort of license for these machines from the City of Miami!  In fact, the only sticker of any sort on these machines is this one...

Of course the machines are for amusement purposes only!

So there you have it, unless the City of Miami licenses are affixed beneath these machines, they appear to be operating illegally.  Even under the mayor's goofy licensing scheme where the machines would be legal, without the licenses whether they're games of skill or games of chance, they're 100% illegal because they're not properly permitted!  LOL!  So much for the mayor's ordinance and all the additional revenue it was supposed to bring the city...

In search of the elusive Maquinita....

Here we are talking about those pesky maquinitas again.  Their natural habitat always seemed to be in the nastiest neighborhoods of our lovely city, they were usually found in the back of cafeterias and bodegas in the lowest income areas, sometimes out back, hidden behind racks or sometimes even in hidden back rooms.


That's all changed now though, under Mayor Tomas Regalado's administration, the machines have now worked their way out of the shadows and are featured prominently in the businesses where they're located.  What with the lax (non existent) enforcement of these machines by local police, why hide them?  Why not put them front and center so as to attract as many customers as possible?


Case in point, the lovely building located at 330 SW 27th Avenue, home to Spanish radio station 670 AM "La Poderosa".  Now this isn't some dank building out in the middle of the hood, "La Poderosa" is located in a nice class "B" office building in a decent neighborhood right on a major thoroughfare, take a look for yourselves...

Now, consider what this radio station means to the community, on any given day you'll find a bevy of local politicians going in and out of this station, some for their regular radio shows while others, both local and national, make the obligatory stop in order to garner votes from the Hispanic community.  So whether it's local Mayor Regalado or his daughter Raquel or perhaps someone like Congresswoman Illeana Ros-Lehtinen, let's say they've been on the radio for an hour or so and they're ready to leave the station and on the way down they decide to stop by the cafeteria that's on the first floor and grab something to drink or perhaps something to eat. What they'll find is a nice quaint cafeteria with halfway decent food...

 So you grab something to eat, have a seat and 

SHAZAM!

So there you have it!  Illegal gaming machines right out in the open, under the City of Miami's current administration they've made their way out of the shadows and are now out front and center, in this case in plain view in a building where some of the most powerful people in our city and perhaps our nation regularly walk by them!


What I want to know now is just how long will it take before these gaming machines find their way into City Hall?

What the City of Miami didn't want you to know about those gaming machines...

The whole mess regarding the gaming machines, aka maquinitas, that brought the City of Miami to its knees finally culminating in the firing of the city's police chief all comes down to whether or not the machines in question were games who's outcome was determined by the players skill or simply games who's outcomes were determined by the computers that operated the machines.  Seems like a stupid question right?  As far as I can tell, whether the outcome is controlled by the player or by the computer, as long as money goes into to the machines and some sort of payout comes out, who cares who controls it, in my book that's a damn slot machine!  As dumb as that whole premise may sound, City of Hialeah police chief Mark Overton even went on the record saying...

“If it’s a game of skill or has some element of skill in it then it isn’t illegal,” Overton explained. “And that basically is what the statute says.”

What in the FCUK does that mean?  From the very same interview, Jim Defede goes on to ask Chief Overton...

But where is the skill to hitting a button marked “credits” and then hitting a button marked “play”?  “I don’t know, that’s part of the issue,” Overton said.

HUH?!  If Chief Overton doesn't know, then why comment about something you have no clue about?  What are we left to think, that there's some sort of black magic that controls these damn machines?

So how the hell are you to figure out just what's behind these machines?  Say for example you're an embattled police chief who crusaded against these machines who then found himself embroiled in a lawsuit filed by the owners of the 500 or so of these machines that you had confiscated, what would you do to prove that these machines were indeed nothing but illegal slot machines?  A smart chief would go ahead and hire an expert witness to go ahead and analyze these machines scientifically and prove that indeed they're nothing but slot machines designed to bilk people out of their money.  Said chief would then go ahead and submit this report to the court at which point any defense the machine owner would have would promptly get blown out of the water.  Makes sense right?

Here's the problem, when the maquinita owners filed their lawsuits to get their machines back, it was police chief Miguel Exposito that was spearheading the campaign against the machines and their owners.  Chief Exposito and his crew went ahead and hired the expert, not just any expert but the foremost figure in the field of electronic gaming and gambling machines, D. Robert Sertell.  The City of Miami retained Mr. Sertell to do a forensic analysis of the maquinitas that were in the city's custody, from what I understand, he spent a week going over the machines.  But just a few months later, City of Miami Mayor, Tomas Regalado successfully ousted police chief Exposito, and just like that the campaign against the illegal gambling machines was over, but where does that leave those lawsuits the maquinita owners filed to get there machines back?   You'd think that the maquinita owners were shit out of luck, what with the results of the forensic analysis of their machines and all, right?

WRONG!  A funny thing happened after Chief Exposito and his crew were fired, it seems like the City of Miami didn't want to pay the expert witness for his work.  While the city did retain and pay Mr. Sertell for the week he examined the machines, somehow the city didn't see fit to pay him for his report!  Think about it for a moment, no report from the expert witness results in an instant win for the maquinita owners!  And what better way to make sure that the report doesn't make it to court?  Easy, DON'T PAY THE MAN WHO WROTE THE REPORT!  Brilliant!

So there you have it, another day in the City of Miami.  The powers that be decided to protect their friends and campaign contributors that owned the maquinitas by directing the city not to pay the expert witness whose report would have destroyed any chance they had of getting their gaming machines back.  Fucking brilliant.  

It would have been a perfect plan if it wasn't for a private citizen who couldn't sit by and watch this bullshit, a private citizen who pulled several thousands of dollars out of his own pocket and paid for the report himself and was then kind enough to forward us a copy of the report...

LOL!  We'll discuss further on Monday...

No really, whatever happened to all those maquinitas?

Remember all that fuss over those damn machines a few years back?  Check out the story Jim Defede did a while back...

The war that erupted between then police chief Miguel Exposito and City of Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado ultimately ended up costing the chief and most of his command staff their jobs.  And worse, the folks that were arrested for having these machines in their businesses ended up winning the criminal cases that were filed against them.  So what about the machines?  The word on the street was that the City of Miami PD had several million dollars worth of these machines locked up in their warehouses and according to what we were told, the owners of these machines were going to stop at nothing to get their machines back.  With the chief out, it seemed like a slam dunk, in fact these documents from our friend Al Crepso's website seem to indicate that the machines did end up going back to the businesses where they were taken from...

There you have it, two court orders ordering the City of Miami PD to return Mr. Abdelhamid Machour's machines as well as the money that was contained inside them.  End of story right?  At least according to the coverage the local media was giving us, it was the end of the story, that is until you check the court docket for case #M09037660, it turns out that things didn't go quite the way the maquinita owners wanted to, from the docket...

From what the docket tells us, the order that we posted above were vacated and as recently as 6/2/11, the motions by the maquinita owners to get there machines back have been denied therefore all those gaming machines are still in the possession of the City of Miami PD.  Strange isn't it?  If these machines really were for amusement purposes only, why haven't the owners gotten them back yet?  Something's haywire here, we'll have to go down to the courthouse today and see what we can find...

Whatever happened to those pesky maquinitas in the City of Miami?

Everyone remember those maquinitas that created such a fuss over at the City of Miami?  Who could have forgotten those illegal gaming machines that were at the center of the war between the City's mayor, Tomas Regaladoo and it's police chief, Miguel Exposito which ultimately lead to his firing by the City Commission.  Many allege that these gaming machines which the city claims are for "amusement purposes only" are nothing more than quasi legal gambling machines whose owners provide cash payouts once in a blue moon to the poor schmucks that empty their pockets into them as evidenced by this video from the Miami New Times...

We're going to talk about these machines that litter our city and the ongoing legal war regarding these machines over the next few days, in the mean time, check out these photos...

No big deal, just a couple of guys in the city of Miami unloading some gaming machines aka "maquinitas" from the back of a trailer...

Now, here are the same folks repairing those same machines they were unloading earlier and now the best part, they're doing all of this in front of one of these guys...

LOL!  All this going on right in plain view and in front of a City of Miami cop no less!  Back during the Chief Exposito's administration, cops were going after these machines and their owners now it seems like under the currents chief's reign, the owners and operators of these machines operate with relative impunity!


More tomorrow...