Miami-Dade Police say Coral Gables City Manager David Brown committed not one, but two crimes related to a cover-up of his city-issued Visa spending.

A scathing report released this week by the department's public corruption bureau, which investigated Brown for falsifying records about questionable charges on his ''procurement card,'' states he should have been charged with official misconduct, a third-degree felony, and falsifying records, a misdemeanor. Instead, he was charged with a single civil charge of violating state public records laws, for which he paid $2,300 in fines.

Police also released wiretap tapes in which Brown is heard giving directions on how to remove staples on receipts and then restaple them so they do not appear to be tampered with.

Brown says he did not commit crimes and has put the matter behind him, and prosecutors say the outcome would have likely been the same -- fines, not jail time.

The case stems back to March, when The Coral Gables Gazette -- a weekly paper routinely at odds with the city administration -- disclosed that Brown had wined and dined employees, commissioners and others on his city-issued purchasing card, including lavish meals with pricey bottles of Robert Mondavi wine at places like the Biltmore Hotel.

When a Gazette columnist asked for receipts from the purchases, the report says, Brown told Procurement Supervisor Danilo Benedit to stall them so he could insert two back-dated receipts that showed he partially reimbursed the city for two of the meals.

Brown told The Herald Thursday that he had not read the report and he felt the matter was closed.

''I did what I was told to do. I was charged with a civil violation. I owned up to it. I apologized. I paid a fine,'' Brown said.

``I certainly regretted it. I even told the state of Florida I wish I had a do-over. I'm sorry I've caused embarrassment for the commission and the city.''

But he insisted that he committed no crime.

''There were no tracks to cover up. I did not need to reimburse the money,'' Brown said, denying that he did so to save face with the commission and the public.

''I stand by my record that I was just messing with [George] Volsky,'' he said, referring to the Gazette columnist.

In the report, Brown admitted to investigators that he had purchased wine or alcohol with his city Viaa between 10 and 20 times over the past two years. He also said he was not prohibited to, as are employees, because he is an appointed official.

The city manager also told prosecutors that he had falsified the receipts in order to ''mess with'' the Gazette columnist.

But police detectives disagreed and in a meeting with prosecutors ``reiterated that in considering all the facts, a case to charge falsification of official documents and submitting said documents in order to deceive the media was appropriate.''

Assistant Miami-Dade State Attorney Joseph Centorino, who is in charge of the public corruption unit, ``voiced some uncertainty concerning the official misconduct charges.''

The report -- which also mentions an investigation into the possibly inappropriate award of a tennis court repair bid -- says that Benedit, fearing that he would be used as a scapegoat, contacted police and covertly recorded conversations between him and Brown.

In one of those conversations, Brown told Benedit he was not in trouble and to ``just say what I told you.''

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