Long-delayed public corruption trial of suspended Miami-Dade commissioner, set to begin
After repeated delays since last Thanksgiving, the public corruption trial of one of Miami-Dade County’s longest-serving public servants is set to begin with opening statements Wednesday morning.
The trial of Joe Martinez was most recently delayed during his summer run for county sheriff and as the court considered accusations of a possible conflict of interest related to the judge overseeing the case. Martinez failed to make it through the August Republican primary in the sheriff’s race.
And though an appeals court denied the suspended county commissioner’s request to remove Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Lody Jean, Associate Administrative Judge Miguel M. de la O will preside over the case. Martinez and his attorneys took issue with Judge Jean calling Martinez to the bench over facial expressions during a hearing earlier this year and argued the judge had created a conflict.
Miami-Dade chief public corruption prosecutor Tim VanderGiesen and Martinez’s attorneys Ben Kuehne and Kendall Coffey were choosing potential jurors Monday and were expected to continue Tuesday, if necessary.
Career derailed by corruption accusations
Martinez, 66, was suspended from office by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in September 2022, stalling what had been a lengthy public career in a police uniform and behind the dais. He was charged with unlawful compensation and conspiracy to commit unlawful compensation - felonies - during his fifth term in office in August 2022.
READ MORE: Gov. DeSantis suspends Miami-Dade Commissioner Joe Martinez weeks after arrest
He is alleged to have collected $15,000 from a shopkeeper in his West Kendall district, in exchange for sponsoring a law that would have benefited the owner of the shopping plaza. The charges could land Martinez in prison for as many as 20 years.
The suspended commissioner spent 17 years working his way through the Miami-Dade Police Department — he was awarded Officer of the Year in 1992 — before parlaying that into a Miami-Dade commission seat representing West Kendall for most of the next 22 years, even rising to county commission chairman.
Prosecutors at the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office say the county measure sponsored by Martinez that led to his arrest would have increased the number of cargo containers holding inventory behind a strip mall. The mall’s owner had been fined thousands of dollars by county code inspectors over the years for adding illegal containers.
That the bill was never considered by the county commission doesn’t matter under the law. The crime was allegedly committed in 2016, just after Martinez was re-elected to the county commission after spending four years as a security consultant. Martinez called the charges “false” and politically motivated.
State prosecutors believe the alleged crimes were committed because Martinez and one of his employers outside of County Hall were financially strapped. According to Martinez’s arrest warrant, his employer had been late in making payroll and Martinez is alleged to have contacted someone with ties to Ocean Bank after being asked to “put in a good word” to bank executives to help secure a loan for his employer.
The state is expected to argue that a month after the alleged request at the bank, Martinez’s chief of staff initiated legislation sponsored by her boss that would have increased the number of containers permitted on certain properties within the commissioner’s district.
On the day of his arrest in 2022, Martinez spent five hours in jail, then refused to go into details about the charges with a group of reporters as he was leaving the facility. He promised to tell his side of the story when the time was right.
He released a statement later in the day claiming the allegations were false and came while he was consulting and a “private citizen.”
This story was originally published October 29, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
