As a cop, he once put bad guys away. Now, Opa-locka’s ‘shadow mayor’ is in prison

There was a time when Dante Starks, a former Miami-Dade cop, put away bad guys.

On Wednesday, Starks, 55, was sent to prison himself for five years for running a “shadow government” of shaking down business owners and contractors in the county’s poorest city, Opa-locka.

A federal judge immediately imprisoned Starks and ordered him to pay back $45,700 in bribes and $39,400 in overdue taxes for failing to file several income returns.

For Starks, a lobbyist who used to call the shots at Opa-locka City Hall, his incarceration in the FBI corruption probe was a long time coming, U.S. District Judge Jose Martinez said in federal court. He wondered aloud why Starks only received a probationary sentence in a prior state case for paying kickbacks to an Opa-locka city commissioner a decade ago.

“He knew, he knew exactly what he was doing” back then, Martinez said.

Starks’ imprisonment came at a turning point in Opa-locka, which has witnessed seven people, including a former city commissioner and city manager, plead guilty to bribery conspiracy charges. In last week’s election, the city overwhelmingly voted for a slate of reform-minded politicians to fill the mayor’s office and three commission seats. Mayor Myra Taylor, who has been close to Starks for years, could not run again because of term limits. She has not been charged in the local corruption case.

At Wednesday’s hearing, Starks issued a brief apology. “I certainly am contrite — very sorry,” he said, as his defense attorney, David Howard, sat beside him. “I want to apologize to the court and the community.”

Prosecutor Ed Stamm, who has run a team of FBI agents over the course of the five-year corruption investigation, said Starks’ history as a former police officer and an aide for a county commissioner should have taught him right from wrong. “Clearly, this was an individual who knew better,” Stamm told the judge, noting that Starks not only pocketed bribes from local business people seeking licenses but also failed to report income as a lobbyist for city contractors.

Stamm proposed the five-year prison term because it was slightly less than the six-year maximum allowed for his bribery conspiracy and tax-filing convictions. He also noted that former City Manager David Chiverton received almost four years in prison, and former City Commissioner Luis Santiago got just over four years. Santiago’s sentence was later reduced to 2-1/2 years because he provided incriminating information on Starks about their extorting local businesses, including a father-and-son towing contractor from Hialeah.

Starks once wielded so much political power behind the scenes in Opa-locka that he was known as the “shadow mayor,” who for a price could deliver commission votes for multimillion-dollar contracts and resolve disputes over building permits, zoning licenses and water connections. His dominant role at City Hall faded after FBI agents raided the building in 2016 following a series of undercover sting operations.

With his sentencing, it’s unclear whether Starks — whose plea agreement in June called on him to cooperate with authorities — will ever receive the same sentence reduction as Santiago. No mention of his assistance came up in court, though the FBI investigation continues in Opa-locka.

This story was originally published November 14, 2018 at 5:24 PM.