Vanessa Brito back again to beat the drum for Penelas and Carollo recall

Sheeeeeeeee’s baaaaaaack.

Like an Asian virus, Gypsy con artist Vanessa Brito is back in Miami-Dade and ready to make trouble — this time, it appears, on behalf of former mayor Alex Penelas, a candidate for the 2020 mayoral election, and/or the Joe Carollo recall effort.

Photos on her Facebook page — her personal page, not her new “community activist” page, where she posted something about his endorsements — show her and a smiling Penelas side by side. “Nothing less than spectacular — with Alex Penelas,” she says about an apparent visit to his office.

“It was great catching up Vanessa Brito,” Penelas shot back.

This could be a good turnaround for Brito, who last we heard had a bench warrant for her arrest for failure to appear in court on a 2017 charge of shoplifting at the midtown Target. Later that year, she was arrested again for trespassing in Daytona. She looked really bad, even strung out, in the mugshot. She looks a lot better now and Ladra is glad she got help.

But she also looks like the same ol’ self promoting con artist.

Penelas told Ladra Sunday that “we are talking to her” about joining the campaign but she had not officially come on board. I warned him to google her first and told him she is a scam artist known best for leaving things half done — or undone — and lots and lots of drama. But, then again, Penelas is getting funding and support from the likes of Hialeah Mayor Carlos Hernandez and former mayor Julio Robaina, two known loansharks and bad hombres who are only in it to see what they can score.

So he’s either not the best judge of character or he’s one of them.

Brito has also posted promotions of the City of Miami State of the City address by Mayor Francis Suarez and photos from the scene — which doesn’t necessarily mean she was there. She once posted photos from the Women’s March in DC and implied she was there — from a dining room table in Kendall. Suarez told Ladra on Sunday that Brito is not working for him in any capacity.

But the post Jan. 17 makes it seem like she is: “Looking forward to joining @francissuarez at the State of the City Address… Join us @pamm for a look at the city’s triumphs in the last year and it’s vision for @cityofmiami 2020.” Us? Is she doing their social media? It’s not entirely impossible that one of Suarez’s big pocket supporters hired her privately. (Hint: She shared soccer stadium announcements in 2018).

So, in 2018, she was supporting the real estate deal disguised as a soccer stadium that Baby X championed, in January she was promoting his State of the City speech and now she’s joined the Joe Carollo recall effort? That’s a hell of a coincidence. And everybody knows Ladra doesn’t believe in coincidences.

Last week, Brito posted photos of recall activists with red and white Recall Joe t-shirts outside and inside City Hall and thanked “our volunteers,” which implies she is working with or for Take Back Our City, the political action committee behind the recall. Ladra hopes they vet her, too, and learn how many failed recall attempts she has been involved in.

And how many politicians she’s ripped off.

She was once sued by a candidate she represented for breach of contract and $11,000 for a mailer that never existed. She also pretended to be someone else for former Miami Lakes Mayor Michael Pizzi to blast political activist and candidate — and my favorite dentist — David “Doc” Bennett, who sued her for defamation. She is always pretending to be someone else.

It may be true that the recall coalition is comprised of a group of unlikely frenemies who have joined forces for the single purpose of getting rid of Crazy Joe, who is the real bad guy here for a buffet of reasons. But Brito makes me question their judgement.

Activist and organizer Juan Cuba — who started the process and has taken a step back, because he has a full-time job for a non-profit when he’s not stumping for presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren — told Ladra that Brito was just a volunteer. But Vanessa doesn’t volunteer for anything if there’s nothing in it for her. In fact, Ladra is suspect of a donation drive she did for Bahamian survivors of Hurricane Dorian.

Don’t take Ladra’s word for it. Ask around. Someone you know has been screwed by her. We should start a six degrees from Vanessa Brito game.

Brito is best known as a shameless self-promoter and might be just posting these photos to look like she’s involved — notice she uses words like us and our — and take credit if the recall succeeds. She also could be looking for a job, and where would she look? Who has money? Penelas has bragged about his $3 million and now the angel investor of the recall effort says he will fund whatever it takes. But she has a bad track record.

Her last known scam — well before the Bahamas donation drive last year — was her second political action committee called Equal Marriage Florida in 2013 to collect petitions to repeal the state’s same-sex marriage with a referendum. She got a lot of good “gay hero” press — but not a single contribution was reported (only two reports were ever filed) and there are probably no petitions collected. The state’s ban on same sex marriage was found unconstitutional by the court the next year and Vanessa — who even boasts a “thug life” bitmoji — was fined by the Florida Elections Commission for failing to file reports. After sending her several violation notices, the FEC revoked the PAC.

But before that, and after her minor role in the 2011 recall effort, Brito — who has always been a media darling — attempted at least two other recalls that were either complete epic failures or total shams to collect money for her original Miami Voice political action committee, which hasn’t filed a report since 2016. She once admitted to me, in a quote on this blog, that the PAC got an illegal third-party contribution of $5,000 from her own firm, Myami Marketing, because her client, who gave the firm the $5k, didn’t want anyone to know the money came from her/him. Which is exactly the point of disclosure laws. And something that was never investigated by the state attorney or anybody else.

Those basically bogus recalls were against Miami Gardens Mayor Oliver Gilbert, who is now running for county commissioner, and Doral Councilwoman Bettina Rodriguez-Aguilera, in an effort that many think was secretly started and possibly funded by then City Manager — drumroll, please — Joe Carollo, who is a mastermind of the shadow everything.

You can’t make this stuff up.

Former Miami city manager and current Jackson Public Trust Chairman Joe Arriola, who is funding the recall effort with the first $100,000 and has promised more — probably, unknowingly drawing the little locust in — didn’t even know who Brito was when I asked him Sunday. “We’re very inclusive,” he said, adding that she was not on staff or getting paid with his money.

“We have people from all over the place. Republicans, Democrats, people I have never known,” Arriola. “I don’t know her, but if she wants to collect signatures and turn them in, I don’t care.”

Well, he should care.

Brito — who, by the way, has worked with or for Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez as well as both Carollo and Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla in the past — takes credit for recalling former county commissioner Natacha Seijas. But she just got lucky. She actually tried to recall five commissioners on the coattails of the Carlos Alvarez recall and Seijas was the only one they got. They because she got a lot of help. Including funding from auto magnate Norman Braman, who once told Ladra that he will never again work with her on anything.

Among the commissioners she failed to recall: Bruno Barreiro, who is on the Take Back Our City bandwagon so hard he was at a press conference last week, as a District 3 resident, blasting Carollo — and he wasn’t thrilled to hear of her involvement.

Could Vanessa be a plant to sabotage the recall effort? Absolutely.

In fact, Ladra doesn’t think that the recall organizers should let Brito go out and collect signatures all by herself. Because she could toss them. I would put eyes on her every single second. She’s got sticky fingers.

Last time we heard of Vanessa Brito, she skipped court on that shoplifting charge. And it looked, from her booking photo in Daytona, like she had been using meth. Or smoking crack. She failed to show up for a hearing after she failed to follow through with the “prosecution deferral” program that included some classes and restitution of $118.28 (the value of the stolen stuff from Target). Her address at the time was at New Horizons Community Mental Health Center, which provides services to the homeless as well as people with emotional or behavioral health issues. Maybe rehab? The court issued a bench warrant for her arrest when she failed to show. It is unclear if she took care of that or if the cops could arrest her at any moment.

That could look bad at a recall protest.

Everybody deserves a second chance and Ladra truly hopes that Brito has addressed her legal woes and turned over a new leaf so she can use her talent for good instead of evil. Calls and emails were not returned but Brito has been spending a lot of time with her mother at Baptist Hospital, according to her multiple Facebook posts (she blocks me but she can’t block everyone), and Ladra really hopes Mrs. B gets better soon.

But Penelas and the recall people should know who they are dealing with. Before Brito tanks their campaigns.

Meanwhile, Ladra is calling HBO. I have an idea for a great political dramedy series!

Alex Penelas, Francis Suarez, Joe Carollo, recall, Vanessa Brito

Vanessa Brito back again to beat the drum for Penelas and Carollo recall added by Ladra on February 16, 2020
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