Local Buzz: Spence-Jones, Charlie Crist and the walk of shame

November 14, 2009 · Posted in Local news, Local politics

crist-whisper Charlie Crist wants no part of the Miami mess, according to press reports. The Herald is reporting that the governor has no current plans to name replacements for two disgraced Miami commissioners, and instead, is hoping to defer to the rump commission, despite the fact that it currently has just two members, and let them choose replacements for Angel Gonzales, who stepped down to avoid facing the long arm of the law, and Michelle Spence Jones, whom Crist suspended yesterday after she turned herself in on theft charges. Crist has apparently been in touch with newly elected Mayor Tomas Regalado, and has said that he’d prefer to wait for the District 4 run-off, and then to allow a three-man panel to pick the two replacements. If that’s true, it would makes sense, since the governor would likely prefer to avoid a fresh fight with the crazies in his party who would no doubt demand that he find two purity-tested wingnuts to fill the posts in the majority Hispanic and majority black districts (in Marco Rubio’s back yard), where he could also risk alienating two key general election constituencies. And oh, what a headache that would be.

Once the third commissioner is in place, the board would have the majority necessary to appoint two others until the next general election, which would be August.

The problem: The commissioner elected for Flagami’s District 4 — there’s a runoff Tuesday — can’t legally take his seat until Nov. 25.

That’s two days too late under the city charter. The charter says if there is no appointment within 10 days of a commissioner leaving office, it’s up to the courts to call for an election.

But even that option was being questioned.

New Commission Chairman Marc Sarnoff had another suggestion: call an emergency meeting before Gonzalez’s resignation takes effect, giving Miami the three commissioners needed.

“Though I don’t know if he’d be willing to,” Sarnoff said.

Mayor Tomás Regalado and Crist have met twice this week, but haven’t been able to reach accord on how the to fill the seats. By day’s end, the consensus seemed to be to wait for Crist to make a final decision on Monday.

As the city tried to fill the empty seats at City Hall, Regalado dropped another potential bombshell: He said he’d asked the FBI to look into possible kickbacks in the city’s troubled Capital Improvements department.

Ok I’m not even touching the new FBI probe. And letting disgraced commish number one appoint a replacement for disgraced commish number two??? Wow, Miami is a mess…

Meanwhile, a source tells me that whereas normally, elected officials and other prominent types are booked through “TGK,” the Turner Guilford Knight corrections center near the airport, Ms. Spence-Jones was taken thorugh the regular facility downtown. Maybe it means nothing. Maybe it was for greater public shaming? Or easier access for the press? Or maybe her attorney asked that she be allowed to surrender at that facility? Who knows, but it’s interesting, and I plan ot look into it.

Also, the Herald rolls out more details of how Spence-Jones was brought down:

The criminal probe that forced Miami Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones from office Friday began almost accidentally in early 2007 — her name popped up as investigators pored over bank records in an unrelated case.

From there, a lengthy paper trail crystalized with a gamble: In September, prosecutors subpoenaed former County Commission Chairwoman Barbara Carey-Shuler to finally hear what she knew about $50,000 in suspicious county grants.

For prosecutors, it paid off. Carey-Shuler denied writing a letter instructing a social services agency to take money set aside for two inner-city programs — Timbuktu Marketplace and Osun’s Village — and give it to a Spence-Jones company, Karym Ventures.

“Did you in any way intend for Karym Ventures to get the money from Timbuktu and Osun Village?” prosecutor Richard Scruggs asked her, in a transcript of her sworn interview released Friday.

“Absolutely not,” Carey-Shuler replied. “I intended for it to go to groups that I allocated it to at the budget hearings.”

That forged letter, and Carey-Shuler’s statement, propelled the criminal case that brought Spence-Jones to the Justice Center on Friday, where she surrendered to police after defiantly criticizing Scruggs’ aggressive tactics. She is charged with one count of second-degree grand theft.

“The state attorney has an obligation to seek the truth and this charge is about removing me from office, and not seeking the truth,” Spence-Jones said at a news conference on the courthouse steps, surrounded by supporters. “I never forged any letter or stole any money.”

Four hours later, Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernández Rundle, flanked by Scruggs, Miami-Dade Interim Police Director Jim Loftus and investigators and lawyers, explained how the politician looted part of the grant money for personal use.

“Shoes, clothes, perfumes, etc.,” Fernández Rundle said. “Many might say such uses of the public’s money did very little to improve the lives in Miami District 5′s community.”

Spence-Jones, sworn in for her second term Thursday, posted a $12,500 bond Friday and walked free to begin the long process of preparing for trial. Gov. Charlie Crist suspended her from office.

Apparently, the prosecutor’s new star witness is getting a bit of the cold feet, having reportedly called Spence-Jones’ lawyer to say her words were “taken out of context” by the prosecutors, and that she is “not some kind of informant.” No, actually, Miss, you ARE some kind of informant. And you’d better get used to it, because the prospects of reversing your testimony would not be good, as they would beg the question of whether you lied to investigators (perjury and obstruction of justice?) along with the obvious question of whether you did in fact, write that letter to get your good friend and “daughter” the money for the business you now claim to have known nothing about. In fact, logic would dictate that Spence-Jones’ defense will almost have to be hostile to Ms. Carey Shuler, and will almost certainly have to center on an assertion that the letter was real. (Or that there was no way to obtain Ms. Carey Shuler’s signature stamp without her knowledge or the knowledge of someone in her office … or a black catsuit and the cable rigging from “Mission Impossible…”) And if Spence Jones didn’t steal the stamp, and Carey Shuler didn’t give it to her … and no accomplice has been named inside Carey Shuler’s office … how did she get her hands on it? The plot thickens…

More from the story, on how the investigation unfolded:

The facts and testimony of the case began when investigators, working a separate corruption case, noticed a payment to Spence-Jones from a nonprofit called Friends of MLK.

In September 2004, Carey-Shuler, then-chairwoman of the county commission, directed the Miami-Dade Action Plan Trust to award $25,000 grants to three groups, including Friends of MLK, run by the Rev. Gaston Smith.

Smith, the pastor at Spence-Jones’ church, was arrested in February 2008 for allegedly using the grant money for his own use. He has pleaded not guilty, with a trial scheduled in December.

Prosecutors then traced the other two grants Carey-Shuler awarded — both of which ended up going to the Spence-Jones business.

In 2005, MMAP officials agreed to transfer the grants from the two nonprofits to Karym Ventures — a highly unusual move that undid a County Commission vote and violated county policy.

Prosecutors say the transfer was orchestrated by Spence-Jones, then an aide at Miami City Hall. She told a MMAP contract officer, William Simmons, that she was the contact for all of the grants, including Timbuktu Marketplace and Osun’s Village, records show.

Cowed by her influence with Carey-Shuler, Simmons agreed but requested letters of support from the two groups — and from Carey-Shuler, records show.

Last year, the manager of Timbuktu, Marvin Weeks, told prosecutors that Spence-Jones tricked him into writing a letter that was later used to get MMAP to turn over the money to her.

Timbutku, which was supposed to use the money to establish an art gallery in a Spence-Jones restaurant, never saw a dime of the grant, Weeks told them.

In the case of the Osun’s Village grant, prosecutors discovered, the victims didn’t even know they were victims.

In 2004, architect Harlan Woodard and his partner, Nathaniel Styles, needed grant money for Osun’s Village, a special district along Northwest Seventh Avenue where they hoped to remake the business facades with modern architecture reflecting African heritage. They took their plan to Carey-Shuler.

“This project is really to reconnect the people to who they are,” Woodard said Friday. “We wanted this to be an area that is primed for transformation.”

But no money ever arrived. They forgot about their request.

Later, Weeks in passing mentioned the grants to them. Woodard later searched the Internet — and discovered county records showing that Carey-Shuler had set aside $25,000 for their project.

The slap in the face: MMAPP had given the money to Karym Ventures, which opened a spa and cafe just nine blocks from Woodard’s Liberty City office.

Woodard said he and his partner never had any agreement with Spence-Jones to work together on the Osun’s Village project.

When Scruggs and investigator Robert Fielder met with Woodard and Styles, they showed them an unsigned letter under their organization’s name. It had been used to give MMAP authorization to hand the money over to Spence-Jones. “We are victims of identity theft!” Woodard told Scruggs and Fielder.

Investigators were confronted with another puzzling piece of evidence: a letter under Carey-Shuler’s name to MMAP, directing the $50,000 for Timbuktu and Osun’s Village to Karym Ventures.

Two months ago, Sept. 18, it was time to question Carey-Shuler, who had retired from the County Commission in 2005.

Subpoenaed and thus given immunity for whatever she talked about, Carey-Shuler walked into the state attorney’s office with attorney Milton Hirsch.

Carey-Shuler said she knew little about Karym Ventures and knew nothing of the letter, pointing out she would never ask that grant money be steered to the company because it violated county rules. “I was like in shock.”

Carey-Shuler’s observations pointed to a forgery. For one, the letterhead had her signature stamp — but she prefered to sign. And the letterhead was dated.

“My letterhead should have had chairman on it, chairperson on it,” Carey-Shuler told the surprised investigators.

Less than two months later, a Miami-Dade judge signed an arrest warrant for Spence-Jones — who had counted Carey-Shuler as one of her greatest political mentors. The same evening, Fernández Rundle praised Carey-Shuler for her “courage.”

Courage. Interesting choice of words. Maybe it’s me, but as glad as I am to see the state attorney finally going after apparently corrupt politicians, I see no courage here. Ms. Carey-Shuler has had a reputation at least as bad as Ms. Spence-Jones, possibly worse. The difference is, with such a good friend in Ms. Fernandez Rundle, she was always allowed to get away. And now, surprise, surprise, Ms. Carey Shuler has been given total immunity from prosecution. Isn’t it nice how that works out? I’m inclined to believe that Ms. Spence Jones did what she is accused of doing. I’m just not inclined to believe she did it on her own.

One more note: last year, when I wrote a story about MMAP, I was told by a someone who was well placed inside MMAP at the time of the grant messiness, that the Gaston Smith Friends of MLK grant did not go through the normal process — that it was put through via a direct channel to a commissioner, who now would appear to be Ms. Carey Shuler. My understanding is that this person has given an affidavit to the state attorney’s office stating as much.

This one is officially developing…

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Tags: Barbara Carey Shuler, Crime, Local news, Local politics, Miami, Michelle Spence Jones

Comments

One Response to “Local Buzz: Spence-Jones, Charlie Crist and the walk of shame”

SteveBM on November 15th, 2009 5:18 pm

Im also glad to see a state attorney taking down these corrupt government officials. Now we need to hope that the replacements havent been tainted by the radioactive government ooze…