Ho, ho, NO!

Our friend and fellow blogger Al Crespo did a bang up job as usual covering our state attorney, Katherine Fernandez Rundle's yearly SAO christmas party.  Al even went through the trouble of getting a copy of the invite list.  At first glance it doesn't seem like much, a proverbial who's who of the politicians, judges, cops, prominant lawyers, etc of Miami Dade county.  Take a look at the list here:

  State Attorney Party List by al_crespo

One of our readers pointed out that upon closer examination, you'll realize that Ms. Rundle has invited certain Mayor's from Miami Dade's various cities, but not others.  Most notably, among the mayors of Coral Gables, Doral, etc, Ms Rundle had invited federally indicted former mayor of the City of Sweetwater, Manny Marono as outlined in red...

On the other hand, Ms. Rundle had invited various members of the law enforcement community, both current and past, for example, she's invited the former chief of police of the City of Sweetwater, Roberto Fulgueira...

No problem there, but it's interesting to note that she's invited former Sweetwater police chief Fulgueira yet somehow she's forgotten to invite former City of South Miami police chief and alleged family friend Orlando Martinez de Castro?  Whatever.

Interesting, perhaps it's nothing more than a simple mistake by a lowly assistant who simply cut and paste last years party invite list, or maybe not!  With that said folks, have a happy holiday, till next time, be safe.

What's with Sweetwater and those free damn police cars?

Last week we left off with a set of documents we unearthed where the City of Sweetwater's then mayor, Jose "Pepe" Diaz, begged the City of South Miami for some of their old police cars.  While I can't understand why the hell Sweetwater would want to get cars from a place like South Miami, what makes the whole deal make sense is that at the time of the request, former City of South Miami police chief, Orlando Martinez de Castro then deputy director of public works in South Miami, was also working in some capacity at the City of Sweetwater so essentially he was giving the cars to himself.

With that said, one of our readers from way back chimed in yesterday on the topic of Sweetwater and their relentless pursuit of free cars...

Straw Buyer,

You need to also look at the City of Miami for the same scheme. Back in 2010, Mayor Regalado and Commissioner Gort were trying to donate Police cruisers to the City of Sweetwater. The former Purchasing Director objected to the donation and recommended that these vehicles be publicly auctioned off and if the City of Sweetwater were so interested they could do by participating and acquiring it through a competitive process. At that time, then City Manager Carlos Migoya publicly attacked the former Purchasing Director during the City Commission Meeting held on 2/25/10. If you get the minutes, you will see for yourself. They got rid of the Purchasing Director because he was too honest and ethical. This has been an on-going scheme of vehicles being donated and then sold for profit. Get the minutes and see for yourself.

Sincerely,

North Observer

No kidding?  Vehicles donated then sold for profit?  I wonder if that's the case over at Sweetwater?  After all, if they really wanted the cars for parts, like the North Observer said, why wouldn't they just buy them at auction rather than go begging for them and leave themselves wide open to ridicule and this kind of speculation?  Furthermore, the letter from our last post where then mayor of Sweetwater, Jose "Pepe" Diaz, asks for the cars for parts to keep their fleet of cars going makes no sense whatsoever as the labor cost of swapping the engines far outweighs what the cars are worth.  Also, one must consider what value a high mile drive train has coming out of a car that's been retired from a police department because of it's age and high miles?  

Somethings haywire here, we're sifting through loads of paperwork now looking for an answer, in the interim, tomorrow we'll take a look at how the mayor's race over in South Miami is shaping up.

Peeling back the layers of the onion...

As you can deduce from my infrequent posting lately, I've had my hands full with non blog related business.  In between juggling the responsibilities of real life, I've still managed to get my hands on some documents that show the incestuous relationship between the City of Sweetwater which as of late is constantly been in the news because of it's Mayor's arrest and the way the mayor's administration and family ran the city like a "criminal enterprise".  With that said, we've heard for years about Sweetwater's relationship with the City of South Miami's former police chief, Orlando Martinez de Castro, while we haven't found a smoking gun yet, we recently came upon a few documents that show just how tight they were.

Take a look at this letter from former Sweetwater mayor and now sitting county commissioner Jose "Pepe" Diaz to the then city manager of South Miami, Charles Scurr, where Diaz asks if the city has any police cars they can give to Sweetwater allegedly for "parts" to fix their ailing fleet of police cars...

That's all well and good, take a look at the date this request was written and faxed over by the mayor of Sweetwater...

The letter was written on January 6, 2000 and then somehow, just the day before, Orlando Martinez de Castro who was then the deputy director of Public Works for South Miami, just happened to send South Miami's city manager this list of "deadlined" vehicles...

What a coincidence?  Sweetwater needs some cars and it just so happens that the day before the request, Martinez de Castro furnishes South Miami with a list of cars that are just laying around?  Check the date...

I guess South Miami was so flush with funds that they could afford to give away cars?  NICE!  It's convenient that the city that they gave the cars away to for free is non other than the city of Sweetwater which gave de Castro a job in their police department after he was run out of the City of Miami PD on a rail.

I wonder where these cars that were gifted to Sweetwater ended up?

Like a criminal enterprise...

That's how City of Sweetwater resident Deborah Centeno described how former Sweetwater Manny Maroño and his crew ran the city in this Miami Herald article.  While the attention Sweetwater and it's former mayor and friends has been getting lately is all well and good, somehow no one has made the link between the shenanigans in Sweetwater and our favorite little town, South Miami, and it's former Chief of Police, Orlando Martinez de Castro.

Let's not forget that when the City of South Miami would set up DUI checkpoints there was usually Sweetwater cops at those checkpoints or when there were drug raids in the black areas of South Miami, once again, there were Sweetwater cops on the scene.  Now, it's not like Sweetwater is the next town over from South Miami, Sweetwater is actually located nearly ten miles away from South Miami, so the question that begs to be asked is why the hell were Sweetwater cops spending so much time over in South Miami?

It's also worth mentioning that both former chief Orlando Martinez de Castro and South Miami Detective Lopez both had jobs over at Sweetwater before coming over to South Miami, the later of which fled Sweetwater while he was under investigation for beating up a citizen.

There's much more brewing just below the surface regarding the relationship between Sweetwater, it's former mayor and the City of South Miami's former police chief Orlando Martinez de Castro.  While the Herald article recently touched upon the common denominator, Southland Towing, I'm told that that's just the tip of the iceberg.  Let's see what we can turn up, I get the feeling that the tenticles of Sweetwater's "Criminal Enterprise" have deep roots over in South Miami's former chief's administration.

Still no information from my last public information request and an interesting court case...

As the title of the post says, we still haven't heard back from the City of South Miami regarding our last public information request where we requested information about the former police chief, Orlando Martinez de Castro, putting tracking devices on peoples cars.  As soon as we get any info, lol, we'll update.

On another note, I was cruising the Dade County court website looking for any new developments on the various stories we've been following and I stumbled upon this lawsuit that I knew nothing about...

It looks like former City of South Miami police chief, Orlando Martinez de Castro, filed suit against the city back in February, months before he was fired.  As always, click on the image to enlarge, the docket looks rather busy!  It also looks like there's going to be a special hearing tomorrow over at courthouse, anyone going that can fill us in?

GPS tracking devices and stuff...

Since we started covering the goings on over at the City of South Miami, several people have been writing in about the former police chief, Orlando Martinez de Castro, putting GPS tracking devices on his foes vehicles in an effort to see what they were up to.  With that said, I don't think you can get any more on point than this video...



If we can take away anything from that video, it's this part:

Walter White:  Hank, isn't that illegal?  I mean isn't there some sort of unlawful search and something...

Hank Shrader: It's known as extralegal.  Trust me, it's our little secret.

Is that right?  Extralegal?  Extralegal means not regulated or sanctioned by law, so in essence, by placing a GPS tracking device on a subjects vehicle, essentially you're breaking the law.  I know there's at least one of our readers that got a warm and fuzzy feeling when they watched this episode of Breaking Bad.

So what's it take to for law enforcement to legally put one of these GPS tracking devices on a subjects vehicle?  According to Florida Statutes here's what's necessary...

F.S. 934.42 Mobile tracking device authorization.—

(1) An investigative or law enforcement officer may make application to a judge of competent jurisdiction for an order authorizing or approving the installation and use of a mobile tracking device.

(2) An application under subsection (1) of this section must include:
(a) A statement of the identity of the applicant and the identity of the law enforcement agency conducting the investigation.
(b) A certification by the applicant that the information likely to be obtained is relevant to an ongoing criminal investigation being conducted by the investigating agency.
(c) A statement of the offense to which the information likely to be obtained relates.
(d) A statement whether it may be necessary to use and monitor the mobile tracking device outside the jurisdiction of the court from which authorization is being sought.

(3) Upon application made as provided under subsection (2), the court, if it finds that the certification and statements required by subsection (2) have been made in the application, shall enter an ex parte order authorizing the installation and use of a mobile tracking device. Such order may authorize the use of the device within the jurisdiction of the court and outside that jurisdiction but within the State of Florida if the device is installed within the jurisdiction of the court.

(4) A court may not require greater specificity or additional information beyond that which is required by this section as a requisite for issuing an order.

(5) The standards established by the United States Supreme Court for the installation and monitoring of mobile tracking devices shall apply to the installation and use of any device as authorized by this section.

(6) As used in this section, a “tracking device” means an electronic or mechanical device which permits the tracking of the movement of a person or object.

According to F.S. 934.42 it takes a little more than waking up one day and deciding to put a tracking device on one of your foe's vehicles.  I wonder if a public information request to the fine folks over at the South Miami PD will produce the legal documents necessary to put a tracking device on someone's car?  I'll go ahead and put in a records request and see what happens.

You'll never believe where shitty cops from Sweetwater end up...

We left off last time discussing a video showing a Sweetwater cop beating the shit out of a man with his hands cuffed behind his back who was being beaten because he wouldn't put his hands on the counter in front of him.  While this incident occurred back in 2010, it's not the first case of a horrendous beating at the hands of the Sweetwater PD.  Take a look at this story from back in 2003, here are some of the salient points from the article...

A 19- year-old man has accused three police officers of severely beating him, and says the mayor later saw them punch him in the head before driving them all to the station.

I guess the beating had the mayoral seal of approval!

Four Sweetwater police officers have been suspended with pay while the Miami-Dade County state attorney's office and the police department investigate what happened to Peter Daniel on June 18.

Suspended with pay? What kind of punishment is that? Someone please suspend me with pay!

Sweetwater Mayor Manuel Marono said that his city- owned Ford Excursion was used to take Daniel to the station, but he refused further comment.

Sweet! I suppose ex Mayor Morono was a hands on kind of guy!

A police report filed by another of the suspended officers, Allen St. Germain, said Daniel threw himself several times against the floor of the police station and the wall of his holding cell.

Of course he did!

Boros said that at the police station, police kicked and beat Daniel. At one point an officer lifted Daniel off the floor as another officer punched him in the stomach, he said.

Daniel said at one point, Boros said, the mayor sat next to him and saw one of the officers punch him in the head.

Is this how mayoral meetings go over at the City of Sweetwater?

Then, Boros said, the mayor returned to the driver's seat and drove Daniel and his friend, Danny Izquierdo, back to the station, where Izquierdo was questioned for a while, then released.

Like I said, former mayor Morono was a hands on kind of guy!  Here's the best part though...

The other officers suspended were Jose F. Lopez and Sgt. George I. Alvarez.

While I don't recognize any of the other officers, I certainly do recognize Mr. Jose F. Lopez. From the Herald Tribune's Florida police officer database...

Jose F. Lopez

SWEET!  So he's involved in beating the shit out of this poor guy, get's a complaint filed against him, miraculously the Sweetwater PD find no cause and don't discipline him yet quits while under investigation and ends up becoming a detective over at the South Miami PD under former police chief Orlando Martinez de Castro!  

I know very little about this Lopez character, perhaps our readers can fill us in?

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.

It's official, Orlando Martinez de Castro is no longer the Chief of Police of the City of South Miami.

I heard the news last night just as I was getting out of the the shower after work...

While mainstream media was all over the place in their reporting of the circumstances which brought about the demise of embattled City of South Miami police chief Orlando Martinez de Castro, I thought it best to get something official from the city regarding de Castro's termination.  I reached out to my sources in the police department and got this memorandum that was distributed throughout the city by City Manager Steven Alexander...

  City of South Miami City Manager Steven Alexander Relieves Orlando Martinez de Castro From Duty

WTF!?  This bit is priceless...

These facts made it clear, that in my capacity as City Manager, I had no alternative but to find that I had no Chief of Police in place.

What about that guy down the hall sitting in the chief's office?

With that said, City Manager Alexander appoints Major Rene Landa the interim police chief.  As I'm told, yesterday the chief's photo was taken down from the walls of City Hall and one of our commenters stated that there were a couple of other members of his command staff that were packing their belongings.  I haven't confirmed any of that yet, we'll report back when we do.

That's enough for today.  I know we haven't heard the end of Orlando Martinez de Castro, I'm sure he's gonna be giving us tons of new material to write about over the next several months.  Now we'll turn our energies towards finally blowing what's left of the Airways Auto Tag agency case out of the water.  Till then...

THE PARTY'S OVER!

The party's over, or so it seems for embattled City of South Miami police chief Orlando Martinez de Castro.  Yesterday I was forwarded this proposed resolution that is to be heard before the city commission this evening at 7 pm.  

In an nutshell basically what the city is saying is that since Mr. de Castro accepted the job of "acting city manager" for a total of 45 days simultaneously during his tenure as police chief, that in doing so he voided his employment contract for the position of the chief with the city.  Take a look at the proposed resolution for yourselves...

  Orlando Martinez de Castro Resolution to void employment contract

According to the state of Florida's constitution,  Article II, Section 5(a) states: 

“No person shall hold at the same time more than one office under the government of the state and the counties and municipalities therein”

Therefore according to the Florida attorney general's opinion (AGO 2013-08) ...

...that appointment of a police chief to the office of Acting City Manager for any duration, even temporary, violates the dual office-holding prohibition in Section 5(a), Article II of the Florida Constitution...

and...

...the Supreme Court of Florida set forth the general rule: “The acceptance of an incompatible office by one already holding office operates as a resignation of the first”

In other words who ever is proposing this resolution is telling embattled City of South Miami police chief Orlando Martinez de Castro to...

We're waiting with bated breath and will report back as soon as there's anything new.

A unique distinction for the City of South Miami PD...

One of our readers took the time to send us this rather disturbing graphic which illustrates the changes in Miami Dade county municipal police department crime clearance rates.  The map was prepared with statistics compiled by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, take a look for yourselves...

  South Miami Police Department Crime Clearance Rates

In case you missed it, the police department with the lowest crime clearance rates in all of Miami Dade county is none other than the pd run by embattled police chief Orlando Martinez de Castro...

If the statistics are to be believed then that means that only 5.6% of the crimes committed in the City of South Miami are solved and subsequently cleared!  Even worse, the statistics also indicate that there has been a 14.5% drop in clearance rates over the last two years in South Miami!  Way to go chief!  I'ts hard to fathom that even a crime ridden city like Opa Locka or Miami Gardens both of which have some of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the entire state, if not the country, have pd's that have a better crime clearance rate than a sleepy little town like South Miami.  WTF?!

On another note, I'm also hearing that old chiefy has gone ahead and sued the mayor, if any of our readers have a copy of the lawsuit and would like to save me a trip down to the court house, please forward me a copy so we can post it up and discuss.

The benefits of having a police chief as a friend...

A few weeks back we discussed how embattled City of South Miami police chief, Orlando Martinez de Castro, abused the federal NCIC database to look up people for apparently no good reason.  Specifically we mentioned to people that the chief looked up, one of which was prominent attorney Joe Klock...

Mr. Klock didn't respond to our request for a comment, but shortly after we made our blog post, Mr. Klock responded to the New Times when they covered our story and said...

This is an invasion of privacy and a violation of a person's Fourth Amendment rights," Stoddard says. "When the chief of police is doing this, we have a serious problem."
Adds Klock: "I think the police chief believes he is above the law and he can do anything he wants. The people who continue to employ him can solve the problem by firing him."

Very well.  Now let's move on to the second person that the chief looked up, leader of the nonprofit Cuban exile organization Brothers to the Rescue, Jose Basulto...

Rather than get ignored with an email request for a comment, I decided to call Mr. Basulto and see what he thought of the chief running his name through the NCIC system,  I certainly wasn't expecting the response that I got!  When I got Mr. Basulto on the phone he told me that Mr de Castro was a good friend and that he used the NCIC system to look him up as a favor to see if there were anything going on that he should know about!

WTF?!  Really?  A friend asks a fucking police chief to run his criminal background to see if there's anything that he needs to be made aware of?!

No shit!  I won't even get into how outrageous this situation is, I'll leave it up to you guys to deal with it in the comments section...

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...

What exactly is a plea of "No Contest"?

As we all know, embattled City of South Miami police chief, Orlando Martinez de Castro, took a plea of no contest in his case before the Miami Dade County Commission on Ethics.  While we all know what a plea of "no contest" means, let's take a look at the definition as provided by Law.com...

n. in criminal law, a defendant's plea in court that he/she will not contest the charge of a particular crime, also called nolo contendere. While technically not an admission of guilt for commission of the crime, the judge will treat a plea of "no contest" as such an admission and proceed to find the defendant guilty as charged. A "no contest" plea is often made in cases in which there is also a possible lawsuit for damages by a person injured by the criminal conduct (such as reckless driving, assault with a deadly weapon, aggravated assault), because it cannot be used in the civil lawsuit as an admission of fault. "No contest" is also used where there has been a "plea bargain" in which the defendant does not want to say he/she is guilty but accepts the sentence recommended by the prosecutor in exchange for not contesting the charge (which is often reduced to a lesser crime). It is standard practice for the judge to ask either the attorneys or the defendant, "Is there a factual basis for the plea?" before accepting it and finding the defendant guilty.

Simple enough.  I think this bit is most interesting...

While technically not an admission of guilt for commission of the crime, the judge will treat a plea of "no contest" as such an admission and proceed to find the defendant guilty as charged

While there was no judge in the ethics case, there was a quasi judicial board that had to approve the chief's plea deal.  And remember, regardless of how lame the outcome of the case was, the advocate for the Ethics Commission, Michael Murawski, did say...

There is substantial evidence to show that De Castro was, in fact, well aware that his department did business with his wife’s company...

The obvious question is despite the airtight case against the chief, why the hell did the ethics commission cut him a deal?  We think we answered that last week.  The only question that remains to be asked then is why did the chief take this plea rather than go ahead to trial?  We're going to examine why and discuss further tomorrow.

The Miami New Times and the Justice Building Blog pick up our City of South Miami NCIC Story.

It's nice to know that the word is getting out about embattled City of South Miami police chief Orlando Martinez de Castro's nefarious and possibly illegal misdeeds.  Both the Miami New Times and the Justice Building Blog picked up on our story about the chief's misuse of the NCIC system from last week.

From the New Times article...

Adds Klock: "I think the police chief believes he is above the law and he can do anything he wants. The people who continue to employ him can solve the problem by firing him."

LOL! And from the Justice Building Blog...

WHAT'S YOUR NCIC LIKE?
Did you ever wonder what your NCIC printout looks like?
Now, courtesy of the Chief Of the City of South Miami Police Department, you can find out. 

The Miami New Times reported here that the good natured and ever helpful chief Orlando De Castro has been (illegally? es possible) running attorneys in NCIC. And not just any attorneys, but attorneys who apparently bug him.

NICE!  I'm in a bit of a rush today, we'll discuss at length next time.

The truth behind the embattled City of South Miami police chief Orlando Martinez de Castro's ethics hearing.

As you all know embattled City of South Miami police chief Orlando Martinez de Castro got a slap on the wrist and a small fine that was classified as "investigative costs" by the ethics commission.  A total farce in my opinion.  Our friend Al Crespo did a bang up job covering the hearing and also included a short video of what went on, check it...

That's all well and good, to the average guy it seems like the chief had his day before this quasi judicial panel and after a year and a half this was the outcome.

The Miami Herald even follows up their original story and gives the reader a glimmer of hope that the chief might still suffer a more serious punishment than what was doled out last week...

The draft final order written by Murawski states the commission “specifically made no finding as to whether the violation was or was not ‘willful.’”
That draft order has not yet been adopted by the commission, and each side will present draft final orders for the ethics commission to consider next month.

This part about the violations that the chief pled no contest to being "willfull" is the most important part though as if the commission finds that the violations are willful, the chief automatically forfeits his job as the chief of police.  While the commission is going to vote on this part of the chief's deal next month, it's just a matter of them deciding which final order the commission is going to adopt, the one written by the commission or the one written by the chief's attorney.  That's a good one isn't it?  The commission adopting an order written by the defendants attorney?!

In case there's any of you who don't realize what went on here and need further clarification, let's make it a bit clearer using some photos.  Before we start, let's preface this discussion with the claim that City of South Miami police chief Orlando Martinez de Castro makes about his relationship with our State Attorney, Katherine Ferndandez Rundle, according to everything I've heard, the chief claims that he is one of Rundle's closest friends and confidants, so close in fact that they're borderline family.  Good enough.  With that in mind, let's take a look at who attended this ethics hearing, starting with the head of the ethics commission himself, Joe Centorino...

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/07/12/v-print/3497731/south-miami-police-chief-pleads.html#storylink=cpy

I know it's a shitty picture, I lifted it from Al Crespo's video of the actual hearing.  Look how interested Joe looks in what's going on and what's being discussed.  Let's not forget that Mr. Centorino was the former head of public corruption over at the state attorneys office, Rundle's golden boy for when she wanted to prosecute political figures.  From his own bio...

Joseph Centorino assumed the position of Executive Director of the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust on September 1, 2011, following his laudatory 25-year career at the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office. For most of that time, he served as Chief of the Public Corruption Division where he oversaw the investigation and prosecution of crimes committed by public officers and employees.

Good enough, anyone with a modicum of common sense can see that there is a pretty strong relationship between Mr. Centorino and our state attorney Ms Rundle.

Now, let's move on to the chief's attorney, Mr Simon Steckel, from an old New Times article regarding Mr. Steckel...

Steckel nonetheless was at the peak of his professional life. As a successful prosecutor he had moved quickly up the ladder at the Dade State Attorney's Office. Over four short years he had risen from intern to supervisor, then division chief.

Another former prosecutor, a division chief no less.  While I don't know of any direct relationship between Mr. Steckel and our state attorney, the possibility for some sort of connection is there.

Now, the last member of the chief's defense team is in my opinion the most interesting, take a look at this guy...

That's attorney Michael Band, another former top prosecutor with close ties to our state attorney, Mr. Band was one of our state attorneys most trusted division chief's as well as a close personal and family friend.  What exactly was he doing at this hearing?  Just how many attorney's does the chief need to defend a case before the ethics commission?

Regardless of what Mr. Band was doing at the hearing, the scene that played out was an obvious one, an alleged good friend of one of the most powerful people in South Florida, Katherine Fernandez Rundle, is being prosecuted by a commission that's led by one of her former top and closest employees and as luck would have it, another former top employee and family friend is representing her friend in front of the ethics commission.  Come on, honestly, did anyone expect an outcome any different than what we got?  Can you possibly think of a better example of how this network of politically connected folks down here protects their own?

From the get go, this entire ethics case has been nothing more than a sham, a dog and pony show, an orchestrated scheme to make the citizens of our county think there was some sort of watchdog watching over politicians and public employees.  I think the relationship between the folks that run the ethics commission, the attorneys that represented the chief and our state attorney will make you think twice about how "ethical" the handling of this case was.

Honestly, did you expect any different?

Despite all the noise we made and the excellent article from the Miami Herald yesterday regarding embattled City of South Miami police chief, Orlando Martinez de Castro and his case before the ethics commission, the ethics commission still went ahead and gave him the old reach around then let him off with a small fine labeled as "investigative costs" and a slap on the wrist.

I know, I know, there are plenty of you that wrote me to tell me that the ethics commission was a waste of time and that they wouldn't punish a politically connected Cuban member of the community, I guess I held out a flicker of hope that they'd do the right thing.

Whatever.  Let's just say that this ethics thing is nothing considering the tsunami of bad things that are about to come the chief's way, so no sweat, consider him toast regardless of what the ethics commission decided yesterday.

With that said, this morning the three tellers that were accused of ripping off the chief's wife's tag agency are going to court again to determine whether they're going to go to trial or not.  We'll update as soon as we find out.  

Also, in case you haven't already, check out this story from the Miami New Times regarding the bugged out Vice Mayor of Palmetto Bay who thinks there's people in boats and helicopters following him around.  Fortunately we were able to get some video of the helicopter following the Vice Mayor around, take a look...

The Miami Herald covers embattled City of South Miami police chief Orlando Martinez de Castro's ethics case

The folks over at the Miami Herald did a bang up job reporting on embattled City of South Miami police chief Orlando Martinez de Castro's ethics case today.  Take a look for yourselves...

South Miami police chief to go before ethics commission

BY DANIEL DUCASSI AND MARIA PEREZThe Miami Herald

South Miami Police Chief Orlando Martinez De Castro will appear in front of the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust on Thursday facing charges that he steered city business to his wife’s companies, Airways Auto Tag LLC and Beck and Lo’s Insurance Agency, Inc. The ethics-commission advocate will likely present a settlement agreement. It is unknown if De Castro and/or the commission will accept it.

De Castro is accused of violating the city’s ethics code, which bars city employees from doing business with immediate family members who have a financial interest with the city. Willful violation constitutes malfeasance and results in forfeiture of office. He is also charged with violating the county’s ethics code, which prohibits exploiting one’s official position. 

“There is substantial evidence to show that De Castro was, in fact, well aware that his department did business with his wife’s company,” according to the probable-cause memorandum, written by the ethics commission’s advocate, Michael Murawski. He refused to comment on the case. 

His memo states the city did business with Airways Auto Tag in February, June, and October 2011.A fourth charge alleges that De Castro was soliciting business for his wife’s insurance company using his city email address. 

The issues were first reported in March 2012 by a local blogger known as The Straw Buyer. The blogger also filed the complaint against the chief.

Murawski’s memo presents an interview with Lt. Dan Salerno (now retired from the police department) who asked De Castro in 2011 whether his wife could help obtain titles for vehicles forfeited to police after being used in felonies. Salerno said the chief answered “yes” and gave Salerno his wife’s phone number. 

“Salerno was taken aback when he was advised that De Castro claimed to have no knowledge of Airways’ business transactions with the city,” the memo said.Interoffice memos requesting checks payable to Airways do not have De Castro’s signature on them but were addressed to De Castro. 

De Castro has denied knowledge of the city doing business with his wife and denied giving any order to do so, according to the memo. The memo states De Castro admitted he gave Salerno his wife’s phone number but that Salerno wanted to ask for help in filling out the forms — not give her city business. 

However, the memo also states Salerno said his understanding was that De Castro gave him his wife’s number to have her tag agency handle the matter — not merely to offer help — and that Salerno worked with Ileana Martinez De Castro every time he went to Airways.For her part, Ileana Martinez De Castro said that she does not discuss her business with her husband or anyone, according to the memo. 

After evolving over months of negotiations, the settlement agreement likely to be offered to De Castro would have him plead no contest to the first three counts, while the fourth count would be dropped. He would also have to pay $2,000 in “investigative costs” and receive a letter of instruction. The agreement, as well as the draft order from the commission, specifically states that the commission makes no determination as to whether or not the violation was willful or knowing. 

South Miami Mayor Phil Stoddard, who wants to see the chief fired, said he thinks the chief would be getting off easy if the commission accepts the settlement and that the agreement does not serve the public interest. 

“The police chief is the highest law enforcement officer in the city,” Stoddard said. “If he is accused of breaking the law and the investigations have it clear, why are they betraying the public trust?”

Now, considering the evidence that the Herald story discusses against the chief, how the hell is it possible for the ethics commission to give him a slap on the wrist and a small fine then send him on his way?  What's so telling though is that despite all the assertions by the Ethics Commissions advocate  Michael Murawski, about having such a slam dunk open and shut case, Mr. Murawski couldn't comment on the case when asked by the Herald reporters.  

This case was supposed to have been concluded a couple of months back with a sweetheart deal for the chief as we had discussed before but because of scheduling problems, the conclusion of the case had been delayed, conveniently to the middle of the summer when there's no one around to be finished.  The hearing at the Ethics Commission is today at 10 am if any of you have an hour or so to waste.

Nice work by the Herald's Daniel Ducassi and Maria Perez on reporting this story.

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.