Criminal investigation includes communication with a Miami-Dade commissioner, report says

Miami-Dade prosecutors appear to have been in touch with Miami-Dade Commissioner Joe Martinez in connection with some sort of criminal probe, according to a Miami New Times report.

The publication said it submitted a public-records request seeking communication between Martinez and the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office, and that the agency declined to provide the correspondence by citing a state law shielding records from “active” criminal investigations.

The article notes the response doesn’t say whether Martinez is the subject of an investigation, or whether prosecutors may be communicating about a probe targeting someone else. Martinez did not respond to a request for comment. Gilbert Cabrera, a spokesman for the County Commission said: “There is no comment at this moment.”

Ed Griffith, a spokesman for the State Attorney’s Office, declined to provide more details. “As a matter of policy, we would neither confirm nor deny the existence of any criminal investigation,” he said.

Martinez is a retired county police lieutenant who reclaimed his District 11 commission seat in 2016, four years after giving it up for a failed challenge of Mayor Carlos Gimenez. He had held the seat for 12 years before his 2012 mayoral campaign.

A former commission chairman, Martinez has said he plans to run for reelection in 2020 but has yet to file his candidacy papers. The other incumbent commissioner not impacted by term limits this cycle, Eileen Higgins, filed her papers in March. Robert Asencio, a former Democratic member of the Florida House, is running for the nonpartisan seat held by Martinez, a Republican.

This year, Martinez reported $31,000 in income from Centurion Security Group, a Miami-Dade company with a contract to provide security guards at county facilities. Before a 2017 vote on a Centurion contract, Martinez submitted papers to recuse himself from the vote.

News of the Martinez tie to a criminal inquiry arrives as the commissioner’s family is enjoying a star turn on television. Martinez missed Tuesday’s commission meeting because he was in Los Angeles to watch his 15-year-old daughter, Joana Martinez, compete on NBC’s The Voice.

This story was originally published November 20, 2019 at 5:51 PM.