Miami-Dade commissioner Martinez jailed briefly. Warrant details corruption probe

Miami-Dade Commissioner Joe Martinez surrendered on Tuesday to face criminal charges, as an arrest warrant revealed he is being accused of accepting $15,000 in exchange for sponsoring a law more than five years ago to help a shopping plaza that had been repeatedly slapped with fines for code violations.

Martinez, 64, was charged with unlawful compensation and conspiracy to commit unlawful compensation.

The commissioner, who faces a possible suspension from office by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, has already proclaimed his innocence, lashing out at prosecutors and calling the case “politically motivated.”

Martinez spent five hours in jail Tuesday morning before posting bond and walking free to await trial. He declined to answer questions shouted by a gaggle of reporters. “One day when I have a chance to talk to you, I will talk to all of you,” he said before stepping into a black SUV, his wife, Ana, waiting in the backseat. “For now, I am just going to go, and just deal with it.“

A former Miami-Dade police lieutenant, Martinez is weighing a potential run as the county sheriff, an office that is being reinstated in 2024. He held the District 11 commission seat representing a large swath of West Miami-Dade between 2000 and 2012 and was elected again in August 2016.

READ MORE: A pugnacious former police officer, Miami-Dade’s Joe Martinez now fighting the law

In a statement on Monday, Martinez claimed the “false allegations” arose from his work as a consultant when he was a “private citizen,” and not a public official. The arrest warrant, however, details what investigators say were Martinez’s efforts “using his official position and using his office” to help introduce legislation that would benefit the owner of the plaza, and the supermarket it counted as its main tenant.

The legislation ultimately never passed and did not wind up being considered by the county commission. But under Florida’s unlawful compensation law, prosecutors don’t need to show that the public official’s “exercise of influence” for illegal pay was actually “accomplished,” only that it was attempted.

“In its simplest form, this case involves a public official using his office for his personal benefit,” Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said at a Tuesday afternoon press conference.

Fernandez Rundle and Miami-Dade Inspector General Felix Jimenez also defended the years it took to conclude the probe, which started with an anonymous tip in 2017 and included a long disruption they said was caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The wheels of justice turn slowly but they grind exceedingly fine,” Jimenez said. “This case involved the taking of numerous witness statements, an analysis of hundreds, if not thousands, of financial records. These things take time.”

The OIG’s probe also netted the earlier charging of well-known Hialeah businessman Mario Ferro, who used straw donors to illegally donate to Martinez’s 2016 campaign. He accepted a plea deal in 2019 for two misdemeanors, accepted probation, agreed to pay $10,000 to a charity fund and the case was later sealed.

The case against Martinez himself, spearheaded by the Office of the Inspector General and the State Attorney’s Office, was pieced together through emails, text messages and financial and phone records.

Pay for Play?

Two weeks after he won his latest election on Aug. 30, 2016, prosecutors say Martinez was paid $5,000 from Jorge Negrin, the owner of Extra Supermarket, which is located in the shopping plaza on the 12800 block of Southwest Eighth Street. The shopping plaza is owned by Calle Ocho Properties LLC, which is owned by a businessman named Sergio Delgado.

According to the arrest warrant, the plaza and the supermarket had been repeatedly fined by Miami-Dade County’s code enforcement office over six cargo containers — used to store inventory — maintained at the back of the property. Under county code, the property couldn’t have that many containers on site.

Then, in December 2016, Martinez received another $5,000 check from Negrin, the warrant said.

It was on Feb. 27, 2017, that Delgado emailed Negrin and Martinez — on the commissioner’s private email — urging help with the container violations. “I need help on this. I’ve paid thousands of dollars in violations already,” Delgado wrote in the email. “Manny shopping centers have containers in back and nothing happens to them. Help!!!!!!!!!!”

A few days later, Martinez texted Delgado saying: “If it’s about the container, rest assured we are working on it.” By then, Martinez had dispatched his chief of staff, Ana Bustamante, to deal with the code enforcement issue.

On March 17, she initiated legislation sponsored by the commissioner that would allow for more cargo containers on certain properties. It was eight days later that the third and final $5,000 check came from Negrin.

Prosecutors also allege that throughout the summer, Martinez was hurting financially and his employer, Centurion Security, had been unable to make payroll. “A fiscal emergency came up and I need to collect all outstanding debts .... that little centurion check helps,” Martinez wrote to the company’s owner, Ed Helfin.

According to the warrant, that’s when Martinez asked Delgado — who had contacts with Ocean Bank — to “put in a good word” to bank executives to help Centurion get a loan. The two began trading text messages about the loan, as well as the shopping center legislation, the warrant said.

By Aug. 19, emails showed, Delgado emailed Negrin and Martinez, pleading for help because the ordinance had yet to be passed. That day, Martinez sent his staff a terse email: “I don’t understand why it’s taking so long? Who is holding this up? Us? The attorneys?”

Three days later, it was placed on the commission’s agenda.

But mysteriously, on Aug. 23, Martinez asked that the legislation be shelved. The same day, he had a 6-minute, 42 second phone call with Delgado.

The Inspector General’s Office almost immediately got wind of the matter. By October, Martinez agreed to speak to agents and, according to the warrant, “he did not recall the reason for the check” from the plaza and described them as loans. He also claimed he didn’t recall who Delgado was. He also could not explain why the agenda item was suddenly shelved, despite being such an urgent matter days before.

“I really can’t even tell you,” he told investigators, according to the warrant by OIG agent Missael Diaz.

That day, after he left the interview, Martinez immediately called Negrin, speaking to him for two minutes and 33 seconds, phone records show, according to the warrant.

It was not until two years later, in November 2019, that Martinez agreed to a second interview with agents and prosecutors. He claimed he forgot he actually did know Delgado and said describing the payments as “loans” was a “poor choice of words,” according to the warrant.

During his interviews, Martinez had also claimed that the money was actually additional payment for a 2013 deal with Negrin, the supermarket owner. Back then, Martinez had helped introduce Negrin to a key investor who helped with the market’s purchase. OIG agents found a 2013 check to Martinez for $20,000, described in the memo as “lobby” fee.

But Martinez could not explain why, years after the fact, Negrin would want to pay him more than the original $20,000 he paid him at the time, the warrant said.

This story was originally published August 30, 2022 at 9:25 AM.