Report: Ex-Gables city manager likely behind one anonymous letter about police chief
It’s been the stuff of water cooler talk in Coral Gables for three years: Who wrote the anonymous letters that led to a year of embarrassment for Police Chief Ed Hudak, who was castigated by the city’s manager for posing in uniform at a pool party with a dozen bikini-clad female police officers in his department?
The anonymous writers included details at the core of a good whodunit: supposedly harassed women, a supposedly penis-shaped wooden bottle opener that actually turned out to be a water gun, questions about how the chief wound up poolside in the first place, and assorted other allegations.
In a report obtained Thursday by the Herald, former U.S. Attorney Roberto Martinez said his investigation into the matter, which was directed by the city, couldn’t determine who penned an initial anonymous letter about the pool party.
But Martinez did find that the address on a second anonymous one, written three months after the first and alleging various forms of impropriety by Hudak, was likely written by Cathy Swanson-Rivenbark, the city manager who had launched the pool party investigation and who repeatedly criticized the chief for his actions.
Martinez, whom city commissioners first asked to compile a report on the first anonymous letter two years ago, hired a handwriting expert to analyze the second letter, which was mailed to Swanson-Rivenbark in November 2017. The letter, signed by “Concerned Citizens of Coral Gables,” directed Swanson-Rivenbark to “look into some allegations we have heard about Chief Ed Hudak.” It then lays out several examples of alleged abuses of power and unethical behavior.
Martinez, who did his investigation at no charge to the city, concluded: “Based on a review of all the evidence, including a forensic document examination, the investigation was unable to reveal the identity of the author or sender of the anonymous complaint letter. However, the forensic document examiner engaged by Mr. Martinez concluded that in his professional opinion with a high degree of probability, Ms. Swanson-Rivenbark wrote the address that appears on the envelope of the anonymous November letter.”
Still, Swanson-Rivenbark, who resigned as manager two years ago, has fought back. She hired attorney Ben Kuehne to study the Martinez investigation, and his investigative findings differed from those of the former U.S. Attorney — so much so, that he urged the city not to publish or disseminate the report until an “objective and disinterested” forensic expert could weigh in.
“It is my professional opinion that Catherine Swanson-Rivenbark very probably did not write the address that appears on the questioned envelope. Very probably did not is defined as... ‘the examiner is virtually certain that the questioned and known writings are not written by the same individual,’ ” wrote Kuehne’s forensic examiner Dianne C. Flores.
The city ignored Kuehne’s request and released Martinez’s findings Thursday morning.
Martinez’s forensic document specialist, Erich Speckin, compared the writing on the envelope of the second anonymous letter with the known handwriting of 21 Coral Gables employees, including Swanson-Rivenbark and Hudak. He concluded that, on a nine-point scale, his degree of certainty that Swanson-Rivenbark penned the address was an eight: “highly probable.”
Speckin’s analysis points to “key similarities” between the writing on the envelope and Swanson-Rivenbark’s known writing, like a connecting stroke between the “o” and the “n” in her last name and a similar “angle downward” at the ending stroke of the capital “S.”
But Flores, the expert hired by Kuehne, said her side-by-side comparisons showed “several significant differences.” She ranked the probability that Swanson-Rivenbark wrote the address as a two out of nine.
In a statement, Kuehne called the report “false and misleading.”
“Cathy Swanson-Rivenbark has been clear: she had NO INVOLVEMENT in any way with any ‘anonymous letters’ sent to the City,” Kuehne said. “It is extremely disappointing that Ms. Swanson-Rivenbark is now the subject of a defamatory and politically-inspired attack intended to blemish her service to the community.”
Hudak, who hadn’t seen the report by Thursday afternoon, said he was briefed on its findings by the city attorney.
“So, I’ll let the report speak for itself,” the chief said.
The bikini-gate incident that led to the launching of several investigations and the resignation of the city manager, happened in the summer of 2017. That’s when Hudak said he was invited to a pool party at one of his officers’ homes in South Dade which was attended by several women who worked as Coral Gables cops. Someone asked him if he’d take a picture with the women, he said.
He agreed to do it. It turned out to be a mistake.
It didn’t take long for the picture of Hudak seated in uniform behind a dozen women in a pool to begin circulating on social media. Criticism soon followed. Hudak’s biggest critic was Swanson-Rivenbark, who had been feuding with the chief since she got the job in 2014 and hired a former high-ranking Miami cop named Frank Fernandez as her assistant in charge of public safety. Fernandez was essentially Hudak’s boss.
The relationship further soured in 2016 when Hudak recommended firing police Maj. Theresa Molina after she ordered a resident to stop texting a commissioner during a meeting. The city manager instead pushed for a settlement agreement. The major eventually resigned.
In 2018, almost a year after the picture surfaced, Coral Gables commissioners agreed to hire an independent investigator. Retired Pennsylvania Police Major Charles Skurkis’ review, released in April of 2018, found Hudak had committed no formal violations and the report refuted anonymous allegations that sex toys had been displayed during the gathering.
After speaking with all the women who attended the pool party and reviewing more than 30 documents, the investigator did not cite any partygoers feeling upset by the chief’s appearance. His report “failed to identify any conduct at the pool party expressly prohibited by CGPD [Coral Gables Police Department] rules and regulations.”
But Skurkis did have questions about Hudak’s judgment in showing up at the party. His main concern was that the chief’s decision to attend and allow a picture to be taken could have left the department in a bad light.
Swanson-Rivenbark jumped on that. She said she didn’t see the review as an exoneration and she issued a reprimand saying she continued to have concerns with Hudak. How could he “honorably and objectively lead the police department?” she asked. The manager was also upset at Hudak for not reprimanding a subordinate who drove her city-issued vehicle to the party.
Hudak and his attorney said the manager was just playing politics and that the chief had no intention of stepping down.
Swanson-Rivenbark resigned in September 2018 after backlash from city commissioners.
Coral Gables Vice Mayor Vince Lago, who called for the second investigation into the pool party incident, said he has asked Martinez to explain his findings to the city commission at its July 14 meeting. Lago hopes it will be vindication for the 14 female officers who attended the party and who are concerned about their reputations.
“I’ll apologize on behalf of the city to these 14 officers who faced the brunt of retaliatory action,” he said.
An initial version of this story posted online incorrectly stated that Martinez found Swanson-Rivenbark had likely written the address on an anonymous letter about the pool party. The story has been corrected to say that, while Martinez could not conclude who wrote that anonymous letter, his investigation found that Swanson-Rivenbark likely wrote the address on a second anonymous letter about Hudak.
This story was originally published June 25, 2020 at 4:15 PM.
