Prosecutors lay out complicated case in former Miami-Dade commissioner’s corruption trial
Prosecutors this week tried to prove that suspended Miami-Dade Commissioner Joe Martinez was in such a financial hole that he went far beyond just trying to leverage a constituent’s need into a payday for himself.
They laid out through witness testimony an alleged complicated scheme that also involved a failed attempt to get a bridge loan and how Martinez helped his private employer secure a multi-million dollar contract with the county’s water and sewer department.
Lead state prosecutor Tim VanderGiesen spent hours Monday morning going through 344 pages of texts from 2016 and 2017 between Martinez and his employer at Centurion Security, Ed Heflin, who was on the witness stand. Several of the texts focused on Heflin bouncing checks to Martinez, who seemed concerned that the company’s money woes could lead to a losing bid for the county contract.
In one message, Martinez seemed to beg Heflin to make sure the company didn’t miss the deadline for a bid proposal as it did in the past with an opportunity at PortMiami. Martinez told Heflin in another text in October 2016 that “we’re being recommended. But the financial situation may mess us up.”
Heflin, who was wheeled into the courtroom after surgery, confirmed the texts were accurate.
Defense Attorney Neil Taylor tried to quickly shoot down any implication of a quid pro quo. He pointed out that not only was Martinez a private citizen between election victories when he helped Centurion Security bid for the contract, but that his client didn’t receive any compensation for helping his company pen a deal with Miami-Dade worth tens of millions of dollars.
“He walked away from hundreds of thousands of dollars he could have had when he informed you, ‘That’s very kind, but I’m thinking of running for office again,” Taylor asked Heflin. The attorney then asked the business owner if Martinez believed it would be inappropriate to accept payment and if he refused to vote on the water and sewer bill as a commissioner.
“That’s my understanding, yes,” Heflin replied.
Martinez, whose job with Centurion was to find business for the company, typically received a dollar for every hour a security guard worked at a property or business that he helped contract with Centurion. The county contract called for hundreds of thousands of hours of security guard work each year.
Martinez, 66, was arrested in 2022 during his fifth term as a county commissioner representing West Kendall and charged with a pair of felonies, unlawful compensation and conspiracy to commit unlawful compensation. He was then suspended by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. The charges could land Martinez in prison for up to 20 years.
The state claims Martinez sponsored a bill to help the owner of a strip mall at 12800 SW Eighth St. in his district and the owner of the store’s anchor supermarket increase the number of cargo containers holding inventory that are on the property.
Strip mall owner Sergio Delgado had been fined thousands of dollars by county code inspectors over the years for illegal containers. Martinez is accused of pocketing $15,000 paid to him by Extra Supermarket owner Jorge Negrin in exchange for legislation to increase the number of containers. The bill proffered by Martinez’s chief of staff never passed.
But the entirety of what led to the charges against the suspended commissioner are a complicated picture that VanderGiesen has painstakingly tried to lay out for jurors. That’s because at about the same time Martinez was trying to help Delgado with his container issues, the suspended commissioner was working for Centurion.
Sought a loan for his employer
And while Centurion was bouncing paychecks and trying to secure the county contract, Martinez is alleged to have gone to Delgado, the shopping center owner, and asked him to put in a good word with Ocean Bank to secure a bridge loan for Centurion.
The loan, according to the charging documents, would help Centurion meet payroll and pay Martinez. And according to VanderGiesen and Martinez in his texts, not being able to pay staff would be a bid detriment to commissioners and managers deciding on the water and sewer bids.
Delgado testified last week. On the stand he told jurors how Martinez introduced him to Negrin, which led to the supermarket renting space at the mall for about $36,000 a month. And Delgado said Martinez was between elections in 2016 when he began helping him with the legislation.
“For containers that have been there for probably over 20 years, it doesn’t seem very fair, does it?” he asked VanderGiesen.
Closing arguments of the trial now in its second week are expected Friday.
