Artiles’ lawyer files motion to hold back ‘voluminous’ records ahead of court date
Former state Sen. Frank Artiles’ defense team is asking a Miami District Court judge to hold back releasing a “voluminous” amount of potential evidence — including cellphone records, photographs, emails and other documentation — to the public because it would interfere with Artiles’ right to a fair trial and “infringe on the privacy rights of nonparties.”
The request comes ahead of a status check-in with the court on Tuesday in preparation for a high-profile public corruption case centering on allegations that Artiles recruited and paid a no-party candidate, Alexis Pedro Rodriguez, to sway the outcome of a Miami-Dade state Senate race.
Artiles, 48, is facing several felony charges for allegedly recruiting and paying Rodriguez, an auto-parts dealer and longtime acquaintance, to run as a no-party candidate in Senate District 37. Rodriguez is facing the same charges.
Both men pleaded not guilty and asked for jury trials last month. Dates have not yet been set, but the case will play out in the 11th Judicial Circuit in Miami.
Artiles and Rodriguez were both charged with conspiracy to make or accept campaign contributions in excess of legal limits, accepting and making those excess campaign contributions, false swearing in connection to an election and aiding in (and eventually, submitting) false voter information.
Under state law, those charges carry sentences of up to five years in prison if convicted.
‘There’s a lot of stuff in there’
In a 97-page motion for a limited protective order filed Tuesday, Artiles’ attorneys argue that the discovery contains a large amount of material regarding parties that have nothing to do with the case, like text messages and phone records between Artiles and his wife, children and private clients.
Frank Quintero, one of Artiles’ defense attorneys, told the Miami Herald Thursday that while “eventually this stuff will get released,” the state “has got to do a better job going through it.”
At their last court date on April 16, Jose Quiñon, who is also representing Artiles, told Judge Andrea Wolfson that he objects to evidence being released to Rodriguez that is private in nature, such as cloned versions of the computers taken from Artiles’ home during a search last month.
The Miami Herald requested copies of the discovery — information about witnesses and evidence that could be presented in a trial — the first week of May.
“There is a lot of stuff in there you are not entitled to, there are third parties who didn’t waive their privacy because they called Artiles or [no-party candidate Alex] Rodriguez,” Quintero said.
He added, however, that he has “no qualms about releasing relevant discovery.”
Separating the state’s witness
The motion also calls for the co-defendant in the case, Rodriguez, to be separated into his own case, noting that his account of what happened in the case was used heavily in the arrest affidavit and that he is a “co-defendant in name only.”
“[He] should not even be in this case because he is an agent for the state inside the defense camp,” the attorneys wrote.
If the state does not move to separate the two cases, the attorneys say they “will be forced to file such a motion.”
“If the state doesn’t get him out quick, we are going to get him out,” Quintero told the Miami Herald.
The June 1 check-in is what’s called a “report hearing,” in which the judge hears the status of a case and uses that information to set the trial or plea date — or give lawyers more time, if need be.
What we know about the case
Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernández Rundle’s office launched an investigation into “possible election violations” in the race to represent Senate District 37 a few days after the November 2020 election, according to the arrest affidavit.
Rodriguez began cooperating with state investigators a month later. At that time, the Herald found through several sources that Artiles had recruited and publicly bragged about planting Rodriguez as a no-party candidate in the race.
By March, investigators had zeroed in on Artiles.
They executed a search warrant at his Palmetto Bay house, seizing his cellphone, computers and other documents, including campaign documents of a second, spoiler no-party candidate named Celso Alfonso, who ran in Miami-Dade’s competitive Senate District 39 race.
A day later, Artiles was arrested and charged on suspicion of offering Rodriguez $50,000 to run as an independent in Senate District 37 to “confuse voters and influence the outcome” of the race. Prosecutors have not charged Artiles or any other people in connection to the Senate District 39 race.
In the motion filed this week, Artiles’ attorneys also included newspaper articles about a third, mysterious no-party candidate who ran in another competitive Senate race: District 9 in Central Florida.
The three races in which those no-party candidates appeared on the ballot — Districts 37 and 39 in Miami-Dade and District 9 in Central Florida — were all won by Republicans. The no-party candidates did no independent campaigning, had little to no public profiles, and their candidacies were all bolstered by similarly designed political mail advertisements that were paid for by $550,000 in untraceable cash.
Alex Alvarado, a young Tallahassee-based Republican strategist, admitted he was behind the two political committees that bought the political mail advertisements. He said it was a “business venture” and that no one hired him to execute the effort.
This story was originally published May 27, 2021 at 7:24 PM.
