Sweetwater commissioner unseated incumbent in 2019. But she didn’t live in the city.
Sweetwater Commissioner Sophia Lacayo, who became the city’s first Nicaraguan-American commissioner last year, has resigned and pleaded guilty to a perjury charge after falsely saying she lived in the city during her election campaign, the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office announced Tuesday.
Lacayo had sworn she lived at an address on Southwest Seventh Street near 18th Avenue in Sweetwater, when in fact she lived at a different address in unincorporated Miami-Dade, the State Attorney’s Office said.
She has been sentenced to one year of probation for the first-degree misdemeanor, agreeing not to run for office again during that period, to take an ethics course with the county ethics commission, and to pay $3,750 in investigative costs.
“Deliberately swearing to false information in order to run for a City Commission seat, as occurred here, deceived those voters who believed in the candidate,” State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said in a statement. “Such a deliberate action can never have a good result for a city.”
Lacayo had pulled off an impressive victory in 2019, beating incumbent Manuel Duasso and former city commissioner Isolina Maroño with 51% of the vote.
Two other newcomers, Saul Diaz and Isidro Ruiz, also won seats.
Lacayo, a 42-year-old accountant, pledged to promote transparency and fight corruption during her campaign. She had a large base of support in the Central American community and a significant following on social media, with over 12,000 followers on Facebook.
“In opposition to the rhetoric that tears at the city, the false promises, the problems of lack of transparency and misuse of resources,” Lacayo wrote on her campaign website. “This promising candidate embodies the very definition of the American success story.”
On Monday, Lacayo tendered her resignation without disclosing the reason.
“It is with a heavy heart that I formally resign my position as Commissioner of the City of Sweetwater effective immediately,” she wrote. “It has been my honor and privilege to serve the people of Sweetwater, and I thank them from the bottom of my heart for the faith they placed in me through their vote.”
In a statement through her attorney Tuesday, Lacayo said her decision to plead guilty “was made in the best interest of my family and the residents of the City of Sweetwater who would not benefit from any protracted litigation that would detract from the real issues plaguing the hard working people of our community.”
A spokeswoman for the city said Tuesday morning that city officials were aware of Lacayo’s guilty plea. Sweetwater Mayor Orlando Lopez planned to hold a press conference at noon.
The investigation into Lacayo was a collaboration between the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office public corruption unit and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Rundle said.
This story was updated Wednesday to include a statement from Lacayo.
Miami Herald staff writer David Ovalle and el Nuevo Herald staff writer Jimena Tavel contributed reporting.
This story was originally published September 1, 2020 at 11:17 AM.
