Dems call on Miami State Attorney, a party member, to suspend campaign over police cases

The Miami-Dade Democratic Party is calling for one of its most high-profile members, State Attorney Katherine Fernández Rundle, to suspend her reelection campaign over her handling of controversial cases involving police officers.

The local party’s executive committee, in a vote Tuesday night, criticized the “staggering failures of the State Attorney to hold law-enforcement accountable” and called on Miami’s top prosecutor to cede her position to her Democratic challenger, Melba Pearson.

For the local Democrats, the position was not new — in June 2017, the party called for the longtime state attorney to step down for not seeking criminal charges against prison officers in the case of Darren Rainey, a mentally ill prison inmate who died inside a locked, steaming shower at Dade Correctional Institution. But Tuesday’s vote came as Fernández Rundle is seeking reelection in the Aug. 18 primary, during which she faces a challenge from Pearson.

Whether it will change the outcome of the race is a different matter: Fernández Rundle — who will continue to campaign — is a heavy favorite, and the election is open to all Miami-Dade voters, regardless of party.

“It’s definitely an extreme measure to communicate the discontent that is happening in all sectors of our community,” Pearson, a former Miami-Dade prosecutor and deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, said on Wednesday.

As a rule, political parties typically remain neutral during primary races. But the party passed the resolution in the wake of nationwide protests over police brutality, sparked by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. And Democratic activists have for years criticized Fernández Rundle’s decision-making on cases involving deadly police shootings.

In 27 years, Fernández Rundle has never charged a police officer for a fatal shooting. But Florida law allows police officers great leeway to use deadly force, and up until two recent cases, no cops statewide had been charged for a fatal shooting since 1989.

Fernández Rundle’s campaign, in response to Tuesday night’s vote, again stressed that it could not file criminal charges in the case of Rainey because the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner ruled that he did not suffer any burns in the shower.

“This made it impossible to ethically move forward with a case,” it said in a statement. “While the state attorney sees heartbreaking cases everyday, the United States Constitution requires evidence beyond all reasonable doubt to hold individuals accountable.”

The campaign also said that Fernández Rundle, a “proud Democrat,” has charged hundreds of officers over the years for a variety of crimes and instituted progressive reforms, such as helping launch a program to help restore voting rights for felons who’ve served their sentences.

“This is why she continues to have broad community support from across Miami-Dade County, including deep-rooted support from Democrats,” the statement said.

A late June poll by SEA Polling and Strategic Design on behalf of a private client not affiliated with either campaign found Fernández Rundle ahead of Pearson among likely August primary voters by a 48 to 17 margin, with 38% of voters undecided.

The longtime state attorney was strongest among Republican voters, but held a 29 point lead among Democrats, according to the poll, which had a 5 percentage-point margin of error.

This story was originally published July 8, 2020 at 4:14 PM.