SERIES OF COMPLAINTS
Partner's employees fumed; then came 'civil theft' case

Her airport employees began complaining about paychecks coming in late, or about checks that didn't clear. In 1998, they complained to DAC's managers in a memo that a Forrest employee turned up at a doctor's appointment "only to find out that the employee could not be seen by the doctor due to disenrollment because of nonpayment of premiums."

The employees fumed that Forrest deducted money from their checks for insurance payments, but didn't pay the bill.

"Since this money was fraudulently removed from our paychecks with the intent to pay the insurance carrier, and because you did not do this, then you have breached the contractual agreement you had with us, " employees wrote in a follow-up letter to Forrest on Nov. 17, 1998.

That year, Forrest Construction filed for bankruptcy protection after running up a $55,000 debt to the Internal Revenue Service and listing total liabilities of $155,701. But a judge later dismissed the case.

Soon, the lawsuits started mounting.

Last year, insurance company Casualty Reciprocal Exchange accused Forrest of playing a major role in "a scheme to embezzle funds." The insurer's attorneys say Forrest conspired with Casualty employees to secretly write checks to one of her businesses. The total allegedly embezzled: $144,957.

When Forrest failed to appear in court, a judge entered default judgments for "civil theft, " assessing triple damages against her and her companies. In February of this year, another judge prohibited Forrest from "engaging persons in employment" until she pays the state $17,086 in unemployment taxes that she and Forrest Construction owe. She has not paid, court records show. Yet she still employs nine DAC workers.

FORREST'S RESPONSE
'All past problems are corrected, ' she wrote

Forrest declined to address the legal issues in detail, saying several matters remain pending. She said she asked the judge to dismiss the bankruptcy, and is negotiating with the state to pay the unemployment taxes. She did not address a Herald question about the embezzlement allegation, saying only that she hadn't appeared in court because she couldn't afford an attorney and that she is close to resolving the problem.

"As a small business, we encounter difficulties on many fronts, including the cash flow problems, which affects everything else we are responsible for, " Forrest wrote. "All past problems are corrected."

In July, DAC paid $37,611 on her behalf to settle a lawsuit filed by one of her creditors. The consultant has also covered paychecks to her employees several times. "I just can't go, 'The minute she has problems, kick her out of the joint venture, ' " said Massman, the DAC program manager.

The airport is also indirectly sending money to Richard Clark as he enjoys retirement in a quiet fold of the Blue Ridge Mountains. He is a paid lobbyist for a politically connected group that has earned $311 million in gross revenue over seven years running MIA's Duty Free stores.

The Miami-Dade inspector general recently issued a report about that joint venture. Its finding: The minority partners in that job did little but collect money.