Artiles’ lawyer again trying to shield records from public view in sham candidate case
Former state Sen. Frank Artiles’ defense team is asking a Miami District Court judge for the second time to hold back releasing potential evidence — including photographs, videos, emails, text messages and call logs — to the public because it would infringe on Artiles’ right to a fair trial and violate the privacy rights of people like Artiles’ wife and daughters.
The request comes ahead of a status check-in on Tuesday in preparation for a high-profile public corruption case centering on allegations that Artiles, a Republican, recruited and paid a no-party candidate, Alexis Pedro Rodriguez, to sway the outcome of a Miami-Dade state Senate race.
Both men were 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, each of those charges carry sentences of up to five years in prison if convicted.
The Wednesday motion refers to copies of data downloaded from electronic storage items seized in March during the serving of a
search warrant, including an iPhone, laptop, and hard drives, Artiles’ lawyer Frank Quintero told the Miami Herald in an email.
“There is nothing there that we can see is of evidentiary value and therefore we are requesting that the irrelevant material not be disclosed,” he said, noting that he “has no issue” with the state disclosing what he deems relevant items.
“However, private and business emails, phone numbers, medical records, family photos, attorney-client communications etc. … with anyone who is not a witness or not of evidentiary value should not be disclosed,” he wrote.
The new batch of discovery documents was sent to lawyers to review on Nov. 30. Quintero said it was “voluminous and will require more than just thirty days to review.”
Both Artiles and Rodriguez pleaded not guilty and asked for jury trials in April. In August, Rodriguez, who was paid more than $40,000 to be a candidate, took a plea deal and agreed to help prosecutors try the man who recruited him to run for office. In exchange for his guilty plea, Rodriguez will serve three years probation, including one year on house arrest with a GPS monitor.
The Dec. 21 check-in is a “report hearing,” where the judge hears the status of a case and uses that information to set the trial or plea date or give lawyers more time to build their cases. There have been several report hearings since the arrests last spring. While court dates have not yet been set, the case will play out in the 11th Judicial Circuit in Miami.
In an 18-page motion for a limited protective order filed Wednesday, Artiles’ attorneys argued 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.
A similar protective motion was filed by Artiles’ lawyers in May, days ahead of a similar check-in with the court. The Miami Herald, along with several other news outlets filed motions to intervene.
In July, the court granted parts and denied parts of the motion. The court withheld medical records, photos depicting minors, bank account numbers and texts between Artiles and his wife and daughters. The court allowed other records that have since revealed Democrat ties to a related dark-money campaign scheme; legal threats made to attendees of the party where Artiles reportedly bragged about the scheme, and the involvement of three GOP operatives who got a cut from more than half a million dollars meant for “mail” paid for by a dark-money group that is part of the ongoing investigation.
Quintero, said “the motion speaks for itself.”
“Some of your colleagues have already abused the privilege of receiving items, that although they have no evidentiary value, have been used to harass some of Mr. Artiles’ clients and people he does business with and that have absolutely no connection to the case,” Quintero wrote, referencing media reports based on the records.
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, and arrests were made in March.
Rodriguez was cooperating with state investigators around the same time that the Herald found through several sources that Artiles had recruited and publicly bragged about planting Rodriguez as a no-party candidate in the race.
While Artiles’ case is playing out in court, investigators are also continuing to look into who was behind the dark money that paid for deceptive political mail advertisements that promoted Rodriguez’s candidacy and no-party candidates in two other Florida Senate races.
This story was originally published December 16, 2021 at 3:59 PM.