AB fraud PI is a hero until proven otherwise

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We ought to be giving Joe Carrillo a medal — not a hard time.

Carrillo, if you recall, is the P.I. who busted open the Pandora’s Box of absentee ballot fraud in Hialeah when he tailed known boletera Daisy Cabrera — who police already had complaints about from last year — and videotaped her chasing and hauling ABs for her chosen candidates. His seven hours of work in one day has done what no state or county cop, what no prosecutor, what no journalist has been able to do — break up the AB fraud machine that has permeated the City of Retrogress for years and is trying to sink it’s rotten teeth into Miami-Dade.

“The cancer of Hialeah is spreading to the county,” Carrillo said. “They want to spread the cancer of Hialeah to the county. And it has to stop.”

And it has, Ladra thinks. Or it has seriously slowed down, anyway.

The arrest of the boletera and ongoing probe, which promises more arrests today and tomorrow and maybe next week and has tainted even the office of a state senator and a county commissioner, has certainly put a chill on shady absentee ballot operations. For now, at least.

Dominos continue to drop from Carrillo’s investigation, which he says was sparked by a tip from a “concerned citizen” who he had talked to about absentee ballot fraud before. You see? Carrillo didn’t really do this in one day’s work. He has been hot on the trail of ABs for years. He’s not a Johnny-come-lately to the manipulation party.

And now his preliminary investigation — which he turned over to the Miami-Dade Public Corruption Unit so they had to do something about it — has implicated state legislators, county electeds and City of Hialeah officials.

Can I get another Hallelujah?

Now, let me just say that I agree with the other journalists who think Carrillo should disclose who his client is. And, yes, it is important. Maybe not as important as who paid Daisy. But important enough. Motivation, I told him, does have significance. But he is adamant that he will not say anything until Aug. 15, the day after the election.

“And then, I will have plenty to say,” Carrillo told me Thursday night after we talked about the still-pending arrests., adding that he doesn’t want to say anything to sway the election.

I told him he has already swayed the election because people are changing their minds or making them up based on rumor and supposition, rather than fact. But he stood fast. “What I did didn’t sway the election. What they did maybe swayed the election. If they go after these people like they’re supposed to, then that will make a difference.”

Even though I’ve been burned by a private eye in the past, I’m going to give Carrillo the benefit of the doubt and wait ’til Aug. 15. But it’s not like I can avoid thinking about it. I’ve heard all the scenarios and created my own shortlist:

• Miami Lakes Mayor Michael “Muscles” Pizzi, who had hired Carrillo before in a case against Hialeah hoodlums, which Carrillo denied with such vehemence that Ladra has to believe him.
• Former Hialeah Mayor Raul Martinez, who denied it in a telephone call from the Bahamas and might have a grudge against Joe from when the P.I. investigated his boy, former Hialeah Councilman Alex Morales. I hear Martinez can hold a grudge.
• Former Miami Mayor Joe Carollo, on his warpath against Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez-Rundle, who is in real trouble with her re-election campaign because of this mess.
• Miami-Dade State Attorney candidate Rod Vereen, who stands a lot to gain from Kathy’s pain. But why would he do it if he could just get Carollo, who is supporting him, to do it?
• Sasha Tirador, as revenge to those implicated for supporting Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez — who has also been linked, perhaps without his knowledge, no matter what his apologists say — against her candidate, Commission Chairman Joe Martinez.
• Hialeah Firefighters Union Vice President Eric Johnson alone or with the cooperation of former Hialeah Police Chief Rolando Bolaños, who each have an unhealthy obsession with the city shenanigans. Neither one of them have the money, though. Bolaños found it humorous when Ladra asked. Slick was a little less convincing — but maybe intentionally so. He defends Carrillo, too. And still kisses Golden Boy butt.
• Hialeah Mayor Carlos “Castro” Hernandez, whose own AB machine has remained unscathed by this, in what one would call a doublecross. That’s what you get when you deal with the devil. Some say that Hernandez was forced to back Gimenez and give his evil endorsement against his will. And then he does this to sabotage the Gimenez campaign and, at the same time, get back at Hialeah Councilwoman Vivian Casals-Muñoz — who is knee deep in this and had been gaining power as a potential mayoral rival to Castro next year — who is one of the authors of the unholy alliance between you and the Hialeah hoodlums. It would score him huge points with Sasha. I mean, really. Did you think he would really stab her in the back? Who else is going to get him elected?

Does anyone have any other suspects? Ladra is listening.

But, really, what does it matter? Even if it was Carollo or Castro or Sasha herself. We should thank them. Because whatever their motivation was, the end result is that criminals were caught, dominos continue to drop and the AB machine is broken. Maybe permanently.

We know that Carrillo wasn’t out to implicate Gimenez, who he calls a friend, so that gives him huge credibility as far as integrity is concerned. If he was motivated for a particular candidate, he might have lost the video tape and forgotten the whole thing. If he was a mercenary, like some say, he would have sold the evidence to the Gimenez campaign to keep it quiet because he could get more cheddar for it. And, hey, they went to high school together.

No, Carrillo did the right thing. He pursued a tip about a particular crime he has a pet peeve about until it led him where he did not want to go. And then he pursued it still and took it to the authorities, even though it implicated someone he cared for and trusted. Damn if I don’t love that. He’s a little like Ladra. It is what it is. You get what you get and you don’t get upset.

And, now, for this, he is getting gobs of grief. People in the Gimenez camp are vilifying him, leaking information about some alleged past arrest and trying to spin his motivation. Journalists are hounding him for the name of his client. People are questioning his motives. The State Attorney’s office called him in for questioning. He is being tailed. And his phone and email were hacked into. That’s why he gave his laptop to the FBI and, yay, the feds are finally involved!

“Nobody has had the balls to do what I did,” Carrillo told me. “I haven’t seen my family in days. I’m physically sick. But I will have my time with them,” he said, about those people who are having him followed and investigated.

“And they know who they are because they got a message.”

Yeah, I know, sometimes he doesn’t do any favors for himself talking all tough like that. He is a foreboding piece of man with piercing blue eyes that can be somewhat intimidating. But maybe we need someone to talk like that. Someone to be absolute about the truth and fearless in the face of this organized and sanctioned oppression and thievery of votes from a vulnerable elderly population.

He’s not new at the rodeo, folks. Carrillo — the P.I. who led Miami Police to the Shenandoah Rapist — has kicked hundreds of doors down to drag kids home from crack houses and other worthless locales.

That’s why — I’m just going to come out and say it — I am the one who hired Carrillo. That’s right. It was me. I’m going to put it on a t-shirt: “I hired Joe Carrillo.”

Let’s order 100 of ’em for Election Day.