Miami News Blog

Alex Izaguirre

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UPDATE: Ceresta Smith has gotten a temporary reprieve. Miami-Dade Public Schools administrators will not be asking the school board to suspend her today. Spokesman John Schuster says the school district is reviewing the matter.

Miami-Dade County Public Schools is railroading another good, outspoken teacher. Today the school board will consider suspending Ceresta Smith without pay for 30 days, illustrating how the nation's fourth largest district silences critics.

Last year, the Miami Norland Senior High reading coach and other faculty members criticized the transfer of a colleague to another school. They succeeded in keeping the teacher at Norland, but Smith's well-intentioned efforts came at a price.

Smith emailed community leaders urging them to call superintendent Alberto Carvalho. She provided information about what a good job the teacher was doing, but at the same time included a file with the names of her peer's students and their FCAT test scores. It is a violation of school district policy to release information. She has asserted that she was unaware she had sent out the students' private data.

Miami Mayor Tomas Regalado

​Miami Mayor Tomás Regalado's insistence that Gov. Charlie Crist appoint a replacement for suspended Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones is getting ugly.

Over the weekend, Regalado and commission chairman Marc Sarnof pressured Angel Gonzalez -- who resigned yesterday as part of his guilty plea deal with prosecutors -- to come to city hall for an emergency city commission meeting to appoint Spence-Jones's replacement.

That failed miserably. Gonzalez allegedly told both men to screw themselves and refused to come in. So for the past 24 hours, Regalado and Sarnoff have been scrambling to put their Plan B into motion, which is to find a way to persuade Crist to make the pick.

According to sources at city hall, Regalado and Sarnoff went to City Attorney Julie Bru to get her to write an opinion that in this case, the governor may select who takes the District 5 seat, based on the unprecedented events of the past week that have left the city commission without a quorum. Bru stood her ground and told them no -- that the city charter called for a special election.

So Regalado allegedly approached city clerk Priscilla Thompson, requesting that she expedite the certification results of today's runoff between Francis Suarez and Manolo Reyes so that the winner can be sworn in immediately. That would give the new city commission -- comprised of Sarnoff, newly elected vice chairman Frank Carrollo, and today's winner -- the opportunity to choose the interim District 5 commissioner.

Michelle Spence-Jones

​Michelle Spence-Jones, wearing a red-and-black dress, black stockings and no shoes, stood in the middle of her Liberty City home's wood-floored living room.

It was close to 1 p.m. this past Friday the 13th. Fourteen friends and family members gathered around her and listened raptly. She spoke authoritatively, gesticulating with both hands, her long black dreadlocks bouncing to the beat of her high-pitched voice.

"It is amazing how wicked the timing of this whole thing was," Spence-Jones railed. "They knew I had a swearing-in ceremony. They had at least 10 days since I was reelected to tell me that they had something on Spence-Jones; that I had to come in."

Earlier that morning, the 42-year-old politician had turned herself into law enforcement authorities, who arrested her on one count of second degree grand theft. She is accused of stealing $22,000 in county grant money. By the time she bonded out of jail, Gov. Charlie Crist had suspended her from the Miami City Commission.

​Early this morning, in front of the Richard E. Gerstein Justice Building at 1351 NW 12th Street, after reading from a prepared statement asserting her innocence, Michelle Spence-Jones grew testy with some of the Miami media horde chronicling her surrender to law enforcement officials.

When WPLG's political reporter Michael Putney asked her if she believed racism played a factor in her being criminally charged with one count of second degree grand theft, Spence-Jones answered tersely: "This is not about being a black woman."

When CBS4's Jim Defede pressed her to comment about her mentor Barbara Carey-Shuler being the main witness against her, she snapped back: "That's not true."

She ended the news conference and, surrounded by her husband, her criminal defense lawyer, and other supporters, Spence-Jones extended a fist into the air. As her contigent chanted "We shall overcome," a couple of young black men heckled her: "Give us twenty thousand!"

Miami-Dade State Attorney Katharine Fernandez-Rundle's office claims Spence-Jones used $22,687 in county grant money on herself and her family's personal expenses. And just like that, two Miami city commissioners are gone.

City of Miami

​A Miami Police Internet message board is throwing out names on who will be the man to replace John Timoney.

One thing is certain: it doesn't appear that his loyal deputy chief Frank Fernandez (pictured here to the right of Manny Diaz and Timoney) will get the top post.

Fernandez, along with Timoney, got a vote of no-confidence from union cops and judging by some of the comments on the Miami Police LEOAffairs.com forum, the rank-and-file despise him too.

The supposed front-runners are assistant chiefs Thomas Cannon and Adam Burden and majors Miguel Exposito and Manuel Orosa. The latter two appear to have the inside track.

Whitney Roux

​Well, that didn't take long. WSVN and the Miami Herald report John Timoney is hanging up his Miami Police uniform. He'll be gone by the beginning of the new year.

Esquire once dubbed him "America's Best Cop." Miami New Times crowned him the nation's worst cop. But rest assured, Timoney will be some jurisdiction's top cop, maybe even one close to the Magic City.

An Irish immigrant who grew up in New York City, where he joined the police department and rose through the ranks to deputy police commissioner, Timoney is an accomplished law enforcer. Before coming to the Miami, Timoney won praise and criticism as the police commissioner in Philadelphia.

Timoney won the heart and mind of Manny Diaz, who protected him from his ethical lapses. But he couldn't win the love of the city's police union and the department's rank-and-file officers. In his resignation letter to City Manager Pete Hernandez, Timoney wrote:

I truly feel I have fullfilled my mission that I set out nearly seven years ago. I leave with nothing but the highest regards for the men and women of this department.

During his seven years as Miami's police chief, Timoney accomplished a fair amount of good for the department, cleansing its reputation as a place where cops could shoot unarmed suspects and plant guns to justify their actions.

And under his watch, the city's crime rate dropped significantly. But the mistakes are far too many to ignore. 

Whitney Roux

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"You're bad. Fuck you!"

Alex Izaguirre

​When John Timoney swooped into the Magic City six years ago, watching him play up to the local media was like seeing Robert Duvall play Lt. Colonel Bill Kilgore in Apocalypse Now.

The sight of Timoney on his police bike taking out demonstrators during the 2003 Free Trade Area of the Americas summit evoked visions of Kilgore catching waves and inhaling the sweet smell of Napalm off the Vietnamese coast.

But Timoney always had the sharper tongue. So Banana Republican is a little sad that his reign as Miami's top cop will soon end. I'm gonna miss his potty mouth.

And as the countdown to Timoney's boot party begins, I've decided to look back at some of the chief's most memorable public comments.

​Every so often, Banana Republican daydreams of traveling the world with Miami-Dade County Commissioner Natacha Seijas, serenading her with the sweet sounds of the toot flute in Peru. I also fantasize about not spending a dime to visit Macchu Pichu and the like. I mean, while services are being whacked, she charges luxury travel to taxpayers.

As chairwoman of the Miami-Dade County Jay Malina International Trade Consortium, Seijas has touched down in eight cities outside the United States in 2008 and 2009. Among them were Istanbul and Taipei. Seijas' globe trotting ways cost Miami-Dade taxpayers $18,493 in airfare, hotel stays, and daily meals.

And she's not the only county commissioner to take advantage of the publicly funded trips to exotic locales. The county recently footed the $5,747 bill for Commish Audrey Edmonson's two-week sojourn to Dakar in Senegal, and Cape Town and Johannesburg in South Africa. Of course, the elected officials don't travel alone. Taxpayers paid a total of $68,831 to have consortium executive director Jose "Tony" Ojeda and other staffers accompany Seijas and Edmonson.

Alex Izaguirre

​An anonymous Miami blogger dubbed the Strawbuyer has made an enemy out of a veteran state prosecutor.

Since debuting on the web this past July, the author -- who writes with the acidic juvenile prose of a celebrity blogger -- has attacked the work of Bill Kostrzewski, a Miami-Dade assistant state attorney who has specialized in economic crimes for more than ten years.

And it appears Kostrzewski doesn't have much of a sense of humor.

In an email correspondence with Banana Republican, the Strawbuyer claims that during an October 15 court hearing involving an attorney accused of mortgage fraud, Kostrzewski informed Judge Mary Razee Flores "that there is a very dangerous situation that is threatening the ongoing case that I need to speak to you in a separate exparte hearing."

The Strawbuyer attests that Kostrzewski wanted to speak in private with Flores about the blog. 

Via spokesman Ed Griffith, Kostrzewski declined to comment. "We are aware of the blog," Griffith says. "However, it would be inappropriate to discuss it since it involves pending cases."

"Kostrzewski needs to concentrate on sending the bad guys to prison," the Strawbuyer sneers, "rather than worry about this little blog."

Alex Izaguirre

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Alex Izaguirre

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Alex Izaguirre

​Could there have been a more ruthless, diabolical, state utility monopolizer to receive $200 million in federal stimulus money than Florida Power & Light? I'm not the only one questioning the federal government's decision either.

President Barack Obama announced FPL's stimulus bounty this week during a tour of the company's new photovoltaic electricity facility in Arcadia. It's the largest of its kind in the world.

The commander-in-chief gushed that the plant - where solar panels directly convert the sun's power into electricity - would save 575,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions over the next 30 years.

Well that's nice and all, but let's not forget FP&L wants to inflict a 30 percent base rate increase on us so the company can finance its grand plan to build two more nuclear reactors at Turkey Point. Yes in case you weren't aware of it. Miami-Dade County is home to a nuclear reactor. Right next to Biscayne National Park.

Alex Izaguirre

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Alex Izaguirre

​The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development sent affordable housing developers in Miami-Dade County an early Christmas present.

This past October 16, HUD secretary Shaun Donovan announced 18 south Florida cities will receive $69 million for community development grants, homeowner assistance programs, emergency shelter grants, and housing for people with HIV/AIDS.

The pot of money includes $26.2 million for Miami, $1.4 million for Miami Gardens, $3 million for Miami Beach, $1.7 million for North Miami and $6.7 million for Hialeah.

Alex Izaguirre

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Alex Izaguirre

​Yesterday the Orlando Sentinel published a report that Cuban immigrants who have recently arrived in the United States represent a vast majority of people getting busted for operating marijuana grow houses across the state.

The article comes two years after my story on the same subject, proving that law enforcement is nowhere near erasing Florida's status as the nation's number one producer of high-grade chronic grown indoors. Government officials cite the lack of lengthy prison sentences for growers as a reason for the high number of grow houses. In most cases, people busted cultivating ganja get probation.

But the problem won't be fixed with tougher penalties. There are a lot of empty houses in Florida. Marijuana grow rings have a lot of cash and are laundering their money through mortgage fraud. Losing one grow operation and a crop tender is just a cost of doing business for these cartels, which can easily make their money back from their other grow houses that don't get discovered.

Alex Izaguirre

​There's just something odd about Oduardo "Oddy" Segui, a 40-year-old Cuban-American running against Miami Beach Commissioner Jerry Libbin.

Not much has been written about the political newcomer. In an October 4 Miami Herald article, Segui informs reporter David Smiley that he owned a hotel in the Bahamas and a transportation company in Los Angeles, both of which he claims he sold to run for office. According to his campaign financial disclosure statement, he loaned himself $5,000.

Banana Republican can't help but wonder if that money came from worthless checks Segui cashed at banks in Coconut Grove, Miami Beach, and West Palm Beach. According to a Miami Police incident report, on December 9 last year, Segui walked into Coconut Grove Bank at 2701 S. Bayshore Dr. and cashed a check for $8,500. The problem was he didn't have any money to cover the funds.

One month later, Segui opened a new checking account at the TD Bank branch at 1661 Worthington Rd. in West Palm Beach. According to a police report from this past January 6, bank fraud investigator Mike Tucker told the cops that Segui "withdrew via ATM, check card transactions, and counter checking withdrawals prior to the checks returning 'insufficient funds,' resulting in loss."

Alex Izaguirre

​Just when I think all is lost in this chaotic, transient subtropical paradise I call home, some of my homies give me hope. They've demonstrated that Miami-Dade does have people who care about the world around them and are willing to raise awareness about making the world a better, safer place for all of us.

Hats off to Tim Ronan, Michael and Lucia Landsberg, Diana Patino, Amy Mendizabal, David Saint, Gavin McKenzie, Mark Diaz, Bamboo Barry, Alex Senf, David Muriel, Alicia Triana and New Times food blogger extraordinaire Jacob Katel who have answered United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon's YouTube message to the world.

Alex Izaguirre

​Did something improper go on in Hialeah's budget office? Did budget director Alex Vega and senior internal auditor Ana Maria Gomez do more than just crunch numbers on city time? Well, whatever they were up to, it didn't sit well with Vega's wife Tania.

This past April 6 around 12:30 p.m., Vega and Gomez were leaving the office to have lunch together. They walked out to the city hall parking lot and got in his car. But before Vega could back out, Tania pulled up.

According to a Hialeah Police report, the city's $116,967-a-year top bean counter "was surprised by Mrs. Vega," who "became enraged due to various marital problems and began screaming at Mr. Vega." She then walked past her husband and leered at Gomez for a second.

Next the unhappy spouse punched her man in the chest with her right fist. In doing so, she shattered the eyeglasses tucked into his shirt pocket and cut her knuckles. She then "grabbed Mr. Vega by his tie using her left hand, pulling him close to wipe the blood on her right hand on his shirt."

The budget director then persuaded his wife to go to his office on the fourth floor so they could smooth things over. There she "got extremely upset again and started to throw the articles on his desk to the floor. She then grabbed a diploma from the wall, and as she attempted to throw it to the ground, he grabbed it from her."

Alex Izaguirre

​Over the past 15 days, I have written several blog posts questioning the residency of Hialeah councilwoman Katharine Cue.

I reported how her driver's license and city documents, including forms she filled out with her own handwriting, showed she actually resided at 19195 Mystic Pointe Dr. in Aventura when she was appointed to the city council last November 18.

The city charter requires a person to live in the city for one year prior to their appointment or election. All an appointee or candidate has to do to prove residency is show the city clerk a voter registration card.

But what if the information on the registration card is not true? Well then, that would be voter fraud, dear readers.

In the case of the 22-year-old councilwoman, her card has listed Hialeah as her home base since she first voted in 2005 even though her driver's license clearly stated her address was in Aventura.

These stories have generated responses from anonymous commentators questioning the veracity of my reporting. Some people have even said I've written lies. And they have demanded proof from me. So here it is, folks:

Katharine Cue's voter registration lists her home address at 360 W. 50th St., a residence owned by George Fuente, whom Cue claims is her father-in-law.

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Alex Izaguirre

​Raul Martinez just won't go away.

The onetime Boss Tweed of Hialeah, who beat a federal indictment and lost to Lincoln Diaz-Balart for a seat in the U.S. Congress last year, is taking on the empire of his successor, Mayor Julio Robaina.

"[Julio] has put some distance between us," Martinez told journalist Bernadette Pardo on WQBA (1140 AM) last week. "He wants to govern his own way... But don't turn around and blame me for the problems in the city."

What set off the feud? Apparently a September 17 story in Riptide, "Where in the World is Katharine Cue?" that questioned the residency of the 22-year-old city council candidate. The story showed Cue had listed an address outside the city when she was appointed to the council this past November 18 -- even though city council members are required to live in Hialeah.

The same day the story hit the streets and the Internet, Martinez appeared on Pardo's show. "Everyone knew she didn't live in Hialeah," he proclaimed.

The following day, Cue went on the air with Pardo, who brought up Martinez's assertion. "That is not true," Cue said. "I don't know why the mayor would say that. He has known me my entire life."

Alex Izaguirre

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Alex Izaguirre

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Alex Izaguirre

At one time, 57-year-old civil engineer Richard Mendez was a very powerful man -- as Miami-Dade's assistant aviation director, he oversaw construction projects at one of the nation's busiest airports.

But in 2001, he resigned shortly before being indicted by the feds for steering multimillion-dollar contracts to three county vendors in exchange for bribes. His wife and two of the vendors were also criminally charged in the scandal.

In 2003, the Mendezes pleaded guilty. He acknowledged committing 34 counts of mail fraud, bribery, money laundering, tax evasion, and filing false tax returns. His wife Mirta agreed to one bribery charge.

Mendez got four years in prison, which he began serving onDecember 29, 2003. His spouse got five months in the slammer. The unhappy couple was ordered to pay back $1.9 million in restitution and fines.

Mendez was released in early 2007, and on February 26 he landed a job with A.D.A. Engineering Inc., a Doral-based firm that is vying for a $1.7 million drainage improvement contract at MIA.

Alex Izaguirre

​Tomorrow evening, Miami-Dade County Commissioners will finally set the budget for the upcoming year.

We already know that Mayor Carlos Alvarez is proposing some seriously draconian cuts and will make good on his promise to lay of 1,700 employees, which does not bode well for south Florida, where the unemployment rate has soared past ten percent and where we are still seeing a record number of foreclosures take place.

And to further close the gap on a $444 million shortfall, the mayor (who earns a salary and benefits package totaling $344,947) is also proposing a 5 percent pay cut for all county employees, freezing longevity bonuses, and gutting approximately $30 million in funding for arts groups, social service, and other agencies that help get kids off drugs and fight domestic violence.

But the mayor, the county commissioners, County Manager George Burgess, his assistants and assistant county managers, department directors, assistant department directors and approximately 400 other county employees who take advantage of tax-payer-funded car allowances, cell phones and other perks won't have to worry about losing out on their benefits.

Even though Miami-Dade County spends an average of $5 million per year on county executive benefits, the county will not be making any cuts to the pot of money used for those perks, according to Alvarez spokeswoman Vicki Mallette. In the case of each county commissioner, they each recieve a package worth $18,720, as does every department director and several assistant county attorneys.

Remember that if you plan to attend the budget hearing that starts at 5 p.m. tomorrow in the commission chamber at 111 N.W. First Street in downtown Miami.

Alex Izaguirre

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Alex Izaguirre

​Hialeah has long been known for voting shenanigans.

Alex Izaguirre

​A public schools source working at Coral Gables Senior High informs New Times that the 17-year-old student killed on campus today had been messing around with his assailant's girlfriend.

The source, whose identity we are not revealing, says the stabber confronted Juan Carlos Rivera about it as students moved between first and second periods. Police have not released the name of the attacker.

The argument escalated into a fight. Rivera was stabbed three times with a box cutter, including in his chest.

The tragic incident has spawned a lot of reactionary comments from Coral Gables High parents and former students, expressing shock that such a violent episode could take place at an otherwise well-behaved school in an affluent neighborhood.

But I've received two emails that asserted the school is in decline. One came from a parent who opted to send his kid to Ransom Everglades and pay a hefty tuition rather than let his progeny attend Coral Gables.

Alex Izaguirre

​It still amazes me how parents lull themselves into thinking that their children will be okay inside the Miami-Dade public school system, even at supposedly "safe havens" like Coral Gables Senior High, where one student stabbed a classmate to death earlier this morning.

We live in a nihilistic age, and Miami-Dade County is definitely not a safe place for kids, even children growing up in affluent neighborhoods. Miami New Times has done a pretty good job of documenting the perils public school children face on a daily basis.

One article that really put the danger in perspective was this illustrated piece by former staffer Calvin Godfrey, who discovered schools police had confiscated 300 weapons from children in 2007. So parents quit your whining and do something about it. Fight to have metal detectors placed in schools and more police officers roaming the halls. And, if you have to, frisk your kid before he or she catches the bus.