Rev. Gaston's Smiths problems are tied to City of Miami Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones (who actually refers to herself simply as "Spence Jones"...) Cue the Miami Herald:
Pastor's arrest, payouts linked BY SCOTT HIAASEN AND MICHAEL VASQUEZ The arrest of a prominent Liberty City minister on theft charges Thursday was part of a continuing investigation into the financial dealings of Miami City Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones.
The Rev. Gaston Smith, who was charged with misspending a $25,000 county grant to a nonprofit he ran, passed along $4,000 from that grant to a company owned by Spence-Jones' family, records show.
The checks are among a series of questionable payments to the first-term commissioner from public dollars set aside for urban redevelopment that police say began before she won her seat in November 2005.
During a press conference Friday announcing Smith's arrest, Miami-Dade Police said the two checks to Spence-Jones' company from the minister's charity, Friends of MLK, were among several payments under investigation. But police would not discuss these checks.
Smith's attorney, Michael Tein, said Spence-Jones received a total of $8,000 from Smith -- with half coming from his church -- as a consultant to help raise money for the charity.
Spence-Jones received at least one check while working on Mayor Manny Diaz's staff before she was elected to the commission.
Spence-Jones stressed late Friday that she had not been charged with any wrongdoing. ''Yes, they did go over there investigating me, but they found no illegal activities on my part -- and that's why nothing happened to me,'' she said.
Spence-Jones' attorney Richard Alayon said she had ''verbal permission'' to work for Smith's organization while on the city payroll. Suzanna Valdez, the mayor's chief of staff, said Spence-Jones' supervisor at the time ``did not authorize her to do outside work.''
Spence-Jones insisted Friday that she did obtain written approval from the mayor's office and filed the document with the city clerk. The city could not immediately provide that document Friday, but Spence-Jones noted that it was filed during a time when the clerk's office was relocating -- complicating its retrieval.
While on the commission, Spence-Jones has backed housing deals transferring city land to another nonprofit run by Smith, senior pastor at Friendship Missionary Baptist Church. Tein said the payments to Spence-Jones were unrelated to the land deals, and the city attorney found Spence-Jones had no conflict of interest. ...
... Detectives are chasing allegations that Spence-Jones asked a condo developer to pay $100,000 in consulting fees to two allies -- former County Commissioner Barbara Carey-Shuler and campaign advisor Barbara Hardemon -- to win her support. Hardemon and Carey-Shuler say they did nothing wrong.
Investigators are also examining $100,000 in county grants to Karym Ventures, a business owned by Spence-Jones' family.
The grants to both Karym Ventures and Friends of MLK were approved by Carey-Shuler in 2004 and funneled through the Metro Miami Action Plan Trust, a county-affiliated anti-poverty agency.
Friends of MLK was supposed to use its grant to help revitalize Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Liberty City, county records show. But the contract also allowed for vague expenses including fundraising, community outreach and administrative costs. County officials say they never received receipts from Friends of MLK.
Miami-Dade Police Director Robert Parker said Smith used the money for ''his own personal gain,'' including hotel bills and plane tickets. More than $10,000 was taken out in ATM withdrawals over three months -- including a $500 withdrawal at a martini bar at the MGM Grand hotel in Las Vegas.
''Nothing shows any work done so far,'' Parker said.
Tein said Smith used the $25,000 as seed money to promote and expand the organization, in part by traveling to religious conferences. He said most of the cash withdrawals were used to pay an employee of Friends of MLK. Another $1,000 paid for a scholarship for a student at a train-conductor course in Jacksonville.
Tein said Smith mixed the funds of his nonprofit agencies and his church, but that Smith has repaid Friends of MLK for much of the money.
''The pastor viewed the business of MLK as virtually the same business as the church,'' Tein said. ``They will never be able to show that Pastor Smith stole from MLK or anybody else.''
Tein said he met with State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle less than two weeks ago in an effort to convince her Smith committed no crime. He believes detectives ''leapfrogged'' the prosecutor to make an arrest.
Oh there will be more ... it's only a matter of time before the probe begins to dig into other political figures. What are you doing these days, Dorrin Rolle...?
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"[T]he practice of arbitrary imprisonments, have been, in all ages, the favorite and most formidable instruments of tyranny.' Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 84, August, 1788
