Who is the brother?
That’s the question everyone was asking on Tuesday after it was revealed that Miami-Dade State Attorney Kathy Fernandez-Rundle recused herself in the case of accusations against Miami’s Three Amigos by former Police Chief Art Acevedo before he was fired.
In a scathing 10-page memo, Acevedo accused Miami Commissioners Joe Carollo, Manolo Reyes and Alex Diaz de la Portilla of abusing their office, specifically of using the code enforcement department, to attack their political enemies and critics. He said they had a “target hit list” and used the police department also to bully and harass haters.
Acevedo was unceremoniously fired in October, but not before he was able to send copies of the September memo to the FBI and the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s office.
Read related: Chief Art Acevedo fights back, reports misconduct by Miami city electeds
The latter started investigating the allegations when it apparently “discovered,” ahem, that there was a conflict: One of the state attorney’s insiders is apparently the brother of someone who could be a material witness to the corruption.
Who is it? Sources (and logic) say it’s someone in code enforcement.
Gov. Ron DeSantis assigned Broward State Attorney Harold Pryor as special prosecutor on Dec. 17. But they could have started earlier.
Okay. But why did it take the state attorney’s office so long to discover this? According to the Miami Herald, the email sent by Fernandez-Rundle to the governor’s office was Nov. 18, that’s two full months after the 10-page memo.
“During the course of [our] criminal investigation, we became aware that a substantial witness to potential wrongdoing … is the brother of a Senior Attorney in our office whom the State Attorney relies upon regularly for wise counsel for her most sensitive legal matters,” the email stated.
Here’s another question: Can Broward just handle all of Miami’s shit? Because we still have the unaccounted COVID relief gift cards and the ghost employees and the Rickenbacker Marina shakedown, among other things to investigate.
Is this brotherly love the reason why other Miami investigations stall?
Read related: Joe Carollo’s rant vs Miami Police Chief Art Acevedo leads to lawsuits
There’s most likely a Six Degrees from Kevin Bacon thing happening between the SAO and the city of Miami all the time. Everyone has a primo or in-law that works in one or the other. Why not go to Broward — or even further up north — to get these very real corruption claims thoroughly investigated all the time?
This is, of course, good news. This is some measure of advancement. It means that, finally, someone is looking in on the shenanigans in the city. It shouldn’t be hard now that it’s out of the conflict-of-interests zone to put a case together.
There are photographs and witnesses to Carollo’s harassment of some Little Havana businesses. There is a paper trail to the laws that were made to single out these properties. There are former employees who are willing to talk. All it takes is a little bit of interest.
And not being someone’s hermano.
Broward gets Miami city corruption case after Miami-Dade SAO finds conflict added by Ladra on
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