Former South Daytona Mayor, Magistrate Start Prison Terms For Taking Bribes



Mayor Ron Clifton

 Two former South Daytona city officials convicted of accepting bribes from an FBI informant are reporting to prison this week.
Former South Daytona Mayor Ron Clifton left for the Federal Prison Camp in Pensacola on Wednesday and former special magistrate Jerome Mitchell -- a disbarred attorney -- is expected to arrive there today. The men were sentenced by U.S. Judge Mary Scriven for their roles in a bribery scandal that shocked South Daytona last year. The men's prison is just outside the Pensacola Naval Air Station.
Clifton was sentenced to 24 months and Mitchell to 37 months. The bribes -- $7,500 paid to Clifton and $5,000 to Mitchell -- were given in exchange for Clifton and Mitchell agreeing to reduce city code liens lodged against the River Club Condominium, 3131 S. Ridgewood Ave.
The maximum penalty for bribery is up to 10 years in prison.
A confidential informant sent in by the FBI paid both men after meeting with them several times. On each occasion, the informant was equipped with a wire and a small camera, according to court documents and court proceedings.



Jerome Mitchell -- a disbarred attorney

 On one of the occasions when Clifton and the informant talked alone at Clifton's residence, the former mayor's children could be heard playing in the background, an audio played in open court revealed.
It has never been revealed why the FBI targeted the two men, who were once close friends.
The confidential informant's cover was blown by Clifton at his sentencing hearing in federal court in Orlando on Sept. 15, when he blurted out the man's first name in a moment of raw emotion.
The informant was identified as Stuart Buchanan, a Brevard County planner who has been working with the FBI for several months on various investigations. Buchanan has also worked for the cities of South Daytona, Holly Hill and Daytona Beach.
Both Mitchell and Clifton accepted the cash in exchange for Mitchell's guarantee that the $241,000 in liens piled against the River Club property would be lowered. Mitchell then lowered those liens to $12,500 at a code enforcement hearing that Buchanan attended, records show.
The Federal Prison Camp in Pensacola is a minimum-security facility.

Federal Prison Camp In Pensacola florida

Clifton left for Pensacola on Wednesday and Mitchell is expected to report sometime this afternoon, said his attorney Mike Lambert.
Scriven had ordered both men to surrender today, but Clifton decided to go early.
"He wanted to go early and get things started," said Clifton's attorney James Dickson Crock. "He wants to get on with his life."
But not before he had a small gathering at a Port Orange establishment.
Clifton's wife, Sherry Clifton, sent out an invitation of sorts asking friends to report to the First Turn Steakhouse and Lounge in Port Orange on Tuesday night.
In the invite Sherry Clifton wrote: "For all of you that know Ron and I so well, you really didn't think that I was going to let him go without a party!!

Attorney Mike Lambert

In a "P.S." in the invitation, Sherry Clifton also wrote: "He can't take any gifts with him on Wednesday!! LOL."

http://www.news-journalonline.com/news/local/east-volusia/2011/10/21/former-south-daytona-mayor-magistrate-start-prison-terms-for-taking-bribes.html

Finkelstein: Six Cops Should Be Charged For Bad Arrests.



Coral Springs Officer Tim Coker


BY BUDDY NEVINS
A Coral Springs Officer arrested a homeowner while he was negotiating a mortgage modification.  The officer then bought the house from the lender while the man was in jail.
Public Defender Howard Finkelstein said this week the case of Coral Springs Officer Tim Coker was just one of five alleged cases of police misconduct to justify unlawful arrests.
Finkelstein has asked State Attorney Mike Satz to prosecute the six officers.
In several cases, the officers were caught by using computer technology.
“We all know (what) has been happening to my clients for years – illegal and unjustified stops by law enforcement for DWB (driving while black)…Technology shed light on an ugly fact: some police officers lie to justify the means to an end,” Finkelstein wrote in a letter to Satz.
The cases of alleged wrongdoing by officers include :
* Broward Sheriff’s Deputy Marc Berman said he checked the tag of a vehicle on April 3 and found that the owner did not have a valid driver’s license, justifying a traffic stop.   The driver was arrested when the deputy claimed he found an active arrest warrant.

A check of the state archived report system in Tallahassee found that Berman never checked drivers license information prior to the traffic stop.
The case was dropped by prosecutors.
*  Hallandale Officer Chris Goulding said he stopped a van after a check of the tag indicated the driver had a suspended license.  The driver was jailed.
The van was registered to the driver’s wife, whose license was suspended.  There was no way for Goulding to know the driver also had a suspended license before the traffic stop.  A judge granted a motion to supress.
* Coral Springs Officer Tim Coker saw a man leaving a house and searched him. Several prescription drugs were found and the man was arrested.
The defendant had been in the house at the invitation of his wife.  He told the officer the couple was in negotiations with a bank to modify their mortgage.
“By arresting (the defendant), Officer Coker had prevented him from doing anything related to further negotiating with his mortgage lender,” states Finkelstein’s letter to Satz.
The defendant was arrested May 4, 2010.  A few months later while the defendant remained in jail, Coker contacted the lender and purchased the property out of foreclosure, according to the letter.
Coker refused to answer questions during a deposition about the house, saying it was his personal business.

“When presented with these facts, this case was dropped by the State. This case is also under review by the Coral Springs Police Department/Internal Affairs,” states Finkelstein’s letter.
* Fort Lauderdale Officers Ian Sandman and Jose Dejo said they ran the tags of a vehicle before stopping it and charging the driver with driving with a suspended license.
A check of the state system disclosed the tag was never run prior to the traffic stop.
The case was dismissed.
* Officer Jefferson Alvarez in a probable cause affidavit said that he observed the defendant in an abandoned gas station, ran the tag and found out the driver’s license was suspended.
The defendant’s explanation that he had pulled in to change a tire was ignored. He was arrested.
A check of the state system indicated another officer ran the tag.  A check of a GPS system indicated two officers arrived on the scene before Alvarez. The officers allowed Alverez to take credit for the arrest.
“I urge you to use the power conferred on you by virtue of your position to prosecute police officers who lie,” Finkelstein wrote to Satz.

http://www.browardbeat.com/finkelstein-six-cops-lied-and-should-be-charged/

Investigators Turn Up More Conflict of Interest at Florida AG Bondi’s Office

In New York we see elites attacking the Attorney General for doing his job. In Florida, however, there’s a different dynamic going on.


June Clarkson and Theresa Edwards,



I’ve written about June Clarkson and Theresa Edwards, the two foreclosure fraud investigators at the state Attorney General’s office fired for being too competent in their investigations. This appeared to be a US Attorney-like scandal at the state level, but I wasn’t hopeful that much would come of it. Boy, was I wrong. The news media in Florida picked up on this and wouldn’t let go. Set against a backdrop of a foreclosure crisis, firing the people closest to getting at the corruption and fraud resonated sharply against the Attorney General, Pam Bondi, and her staff. Bondi, after making nods toward defending the decision, then initiated an outside investigation into the firing. And that still wasn’t enough to satiate the press. This is a devastating article from the Orlando Sentinel a couple days ago:



Attorney General Pam Bondi


Eight months after she took office as a first-time elected official, Attorney General Pam Bondi is facing a management crisis replete with allegations of old-fashioned political interference in cases and a revolving door between lawyers and the companies they investigate.
An outside investigator is looking into the circumstances surrounding the May firings of foreclosure fraud investigators June Clarkson and Theresa Edwards. This week, another investigator abruptly resigned after giving the media a 16-page memo noting that two other high-profile lawyers in the attorney general’s office had taken jobs with companies under investigation, and accusing top management of interfering in an investigation of a prominent Tampa car dealership [...]
The latest blast came from Andrew Spark, who resigned from Bondi’s Tampa economic crimes office and said in a 16-page, memo that he was speaking out because the public deserved “fair and honest government, independent of personal connections and powerful interests.”



Bill McCollum

 He complained that two top lawyers, former assistant attorney general Joe Jacquot and former Economic Crimes Division Director Mary Leontakianakos, had both taken jobs with foreclosure companies under state investigation, Jacksonville-based Lender Processing Services and the Law Offices of Marshall C. Watson in Fort Lauderdale. Both had worked for Bondi’s predecessor, Bill McCollum, who lost a primary bid for governor last fall.
Jacquot said Friday he had avoided any involvement in the investigation into LPS months before taking a job with the company, and is legally banned from representing the company before his old office. Leontakianakos, a 25-year veteran of four administrations, was hired this summer by the Watson law firm two months after it reached a $2 million settlement with the AG’s office. She said Friday she cleared the job with the state Ethics Commission and made certain the investigation into the Watson firm was closed before she interviewed for the job.

So not only were Clarkson and Edwards fired for, among other things, pursuing investigations against LPS, but other lawyers at the AGs office were JOINING LPS after they settled with the state.
Some of Bondi’s other troubles concern an adverse judicial ruling that really undercuts her consumer protection responsibilities. And that’s just garden-variety ideology trumping the law. But even in that case, Bondi’s office declined to appeal the ruling to the state Supreme Court, apparently preferring to tie their own hands.
The pressure is on Pam Bondi. I didn’t think that, in this environment, she would go the way of Alberto Gonzales. But with an independent investigation sure to produce more revelations, it’s certainly possible.

UPDATE: The Sentinel article made it sound like Bondi’s office settled with LPS, but their only settlement as it relates to foreclosure fraud was a $2 million deal with the Law Offices of Marshall C. Watson, a foreclosure mill law firm.

By: David Dayen Monday August 15, 2011 6:55 am

http://news.firedoglake.com/2011/08/15/investigators-turn-up-more-conflict-of-interest-at-florida-ag-bondis-office/

The Florida Way, Corruption

May 8, 2011

When people think about political corruption they think of places like Chicago and New York but the number one state for corruption in America is Florida.  Florida has had more public officials found guilty of corruption than any other state in the last decade, a staggering 824 politicians. These are just the ones who got caught.
But the savvy politician does not have to break the law. They can simply set up a consulting company and circumvent every campaign law. It has become the Florida Way.


State Senator Mike Fasano



Consulting fees are nothing more than buying access to elected officials and obtaining political favors. Why do lawyers, engineers, and doctors give up their careers to make $30,000 a year as a legislator in Tallahassee? We hope this is a public service but for many they make more money as politicians than in the private sector.





Florida

 Let’s say you are a certain transportation company seeking legislation that will help your bottom line. Campaign laws limit the amount of money you can give to a political campaign, but in Florida you can hire elected officials as “consultants” and pay them whatever you want. There are numerous examples of powerful elected officials being paid tens of thousands of dollars in consulting fees or to perform marketing studies despite the fact they never performed those services before they held elected office.



The average taxpayer does not have a fighting chance when powerful special interests throw millions of dollars at elected officials. If an elected official has a choice between feeding their family or serving the taxpayer they will chose their family every time.
State Senator Mike Fasano proposed an ethics reform bill this year. The problem is Fasano accepted a job with a powerful company just weeks after approving Sun Rail that helped his new employer. Ethics reform should prevent elected officials from taking consulting fees or jobs from companies that do business with the State of Florida.

We currently have elected officials employed in “government affairs” with companies who benefit from their work. If an elected official has a job with a company that does business with the State of Florida, that representative should be barred from voting on legislation that affects their company. These public servants are not serving the public at all. They put themselves in a position of power to help their employers.
Corruption is no longer cash in a brown paper bag. The corruption now comes in the form of consulting fees and jobs that influence public policy to the benefit of special interests. Florida desperately needs a major ethics reform law that bars elected officials from putting the interests of special interests above the citizens of Florida.

http://www.floridapoliticalpress.com/2011/05/08/the-florida-way-corruption/

Corruption Case Snares Former Coral Springs Florida Mayor Scott Brook



Mayor Scott Brook

 When Former Coral Springs Mayor Scott Brook dropped out of a state House race in September, he cited family reasons.
But there was something else brewing in the background.
Brook is apparently another politician dragged down by the dirty developers, Bruce and Shawn Chait.
The Florida Ethics Commission staff is recommending commissioners find probable cause to believe Brook broke state ethics laws.  He is alleged to have accepted a boat trip, food and drink from the Chaits while voting on their controversial golf course project.
Brook was a member of the Broward County Planning Council, which was considering the Chait’s plan to pave over two Tamarac golf courses.
According to ethics commission documents obtained by Browardbeat.com:

In 2006, Brook asked the Chaits for use of their 74-foot Viking yacht to watch the Fort Lauderdale Air and Sea Show on May 6.  The developers  said the yacht was not available, but offered Brook a 27-foot boat instead.

• Brook accepted and took his wife, children, another couple and their children to view the show.  He was given free drinks and snacks.
• Less than three weeks later, Brook voted to approve development of 161 acres the Chaits owned in Tamarac with 931 homes.
• The staff report indicates that Brook admitted accepting the 3 1/2 hour boat ride and refreshments.  The staff put the trip’s value at $750.
  Staff investigators concluded Brook broke state laws forbidding unauthorized compensation and soliciting unauthorized compensation. 

 Non-lawyers call that accepting and soliciting a bribe.The commission will consider the staff’s recommendation next month.
The complaint was filed by Tim Donnelly, a chief investigator of public corruption in State Attorney Mike Satz’s office.  I have no idea why Donnelly did not file a criminal complaint against Brook.
Any punishment would be a fine, but not jail since it was a civil ethics complaint.

• BY BUDDY NEVINS

http://www.browardbeat.com/former-coral-springs-mayor-dragged-into-chait-corruption-case/

Two Fort Lauderdale Cops Arrested On Multiple Charges

FORT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) – The Fort Lauderdale Police Department has scheduled a news conference for 11:00 a.m. following the surrender and arrest of two of its police officers.

Detectives Brian Dodge and Billy Koepke are charged with multiple counts including racketeering, kidnapping, extortion, perjury, grand theft, making threats, and false arrest. Both men turned themselves in at the Broward Main Jail Thursday night and appeared in bond court Friday morning.

Bond was set for both men. The two officers are eligible for pre-trial release and will be under house arrest with GPS monitors once they make bond, according to the Sun Sentinel. The judge also ordered both men to give up their passports and have no contact with each other or potential witnesses in the case.

Dodge and Koepke, both members of a Street Crimes Unit formerly known as the Raiders, have been under investigation for months for allegedly robbing drug dealers of cash and contraband and kidnapping them at gunpoint to participate in drug operations, according to the South Florida Times.

Both officers have been on paid suspension from their jobs since April 18, police officials said.

The detectives came under scrutiny over a suspicious drug arrest at a Red Roof Inn, located at 4800 N. Powerline Road in Oakland Park. The men made two arrests at the motel but hotel security video contradicts their version of the arrests, states the Sentinel.



Michael Florenco



A police corruption task force, made up of Fort Lauderdale officers and FBI agents, turned up evidence that Koepke and Dodge claimed they found crack cocaine on a man who had none and stole several thousand dollars that should have been turned over as evidence, sources said.



Matthew Moceri



Two other officers, Matthew Moceri and Michael Florenco, have been suspended in the same investigation but have not been criminally charged.

https://mail.google.com/mail/?shva=1#inbox/1336f04f65f58fe3

Florida Hired Law Firm With Ties To Gov. Rick Scott

By GARY FINEOUT

Associated Press

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Florida has spent nearly a half-million dollars - and could spend even more - with a large, well-known law firm that has connections to both the Republican Party of Florida as well as Gov. Rick Scott.
Since August the state has paid nearly $400,000 to the law firm of Alston and Bird to defend a new state law that requires public employees to contribute 3 percent of their pay to the state pension fund.
The firm was hired at the urging of the Scott administration which asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to approve paying the firm hourly rates at $495 an hour or nearly $300 more than what is normally allowed.
The Scott administration and Bondi have defended the hiring of the firm, saying it specializes in the kind of litigation that the state is now involved in.



General Pam Bondi

 But the firm's roster also includes a one-time business associate of Scott.
While not working directly on the lawsuit, a senior counsel with the firm's Washington D.C. office is Thomas Scully. Scully is also a general partner with the New York investment firm of Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe. That's the investment firm that this June purchased Scott's shares in Solantic, a chain of urgent care clinics the governor started back in 2001.
Scully, who once led the Federation of American Hospitals, was appointed to the board of directors of Solantic back in 2008.
Scott last year valued his shares in Solantic at $62 million. He initially transferred his ownership interest to his wife's revocable trust prior to taking office in January. But then Scott sold the shares amid questions as to whether he could benefit financially from state efforts to privatize Medicaid and require drug testing for welfare recipients. Scott maintained that Solantic would not seek state contracts and said he was just too busy as governor to spend time overseeing business interests.

Scott, the former head of the massive Columbia/HCA hospital chain, said that he has known Scully for 20 years. But he said on Tuesday that he didn't know that Scully worked for Alston and Bird.
"I knew that he was with a firm in D.C. but I didn't know the name of the firm," Scott told The Associated Press.
Alston and Bird has offices in Brussels and across the nation, including Atlanta, but none in Florida. The firm is involved in a wide-range of areas, ranging from work it did as an examiner on the bankruptcy of Enron to lobbying in Washington D.C.
The firm conducted a forensic audit last year on behalf of the Republican Party of Florida that concluded that former Gov. Charlie Crist and former party chairman Jim Greer had misspent party money. Crist, who bolted the Republican Party last spring to run for the U.S. Senate as an independent, blasted the audit at the time and denied he let the party pay for vacations he took.



Gov. Charlie Crist

 Federal campaign records from last year and early this year show that the Republican Party paid nearly $200,000 to Alston and Bird for its work.
Alston and Bird was first hired by the state back in early August after the Florida Education Association, other public employee unions and several individual workers asked a court to strike down the law that requires public employees to start contributing to the Florida Retirement System
Bondi's office - which is responsible for defending the state in lawsuits - signed off on a request from the Scott administration to hire the firm and to pay it more than normal hourly rates.
"We thought they were best," said Bondi when asked about it.
But State Sen. Nan Rich, D-Weston, sharply criticized the hiring and questioned why the state couldn't at least hire a law firm that has offices located in the state.
"Did we have go all the way to D.C. to hire attorneys who get paid at more than twice the normal pay?" Rich said.


Follow the money



The contract between the state and the law firm caps the total compensation at $500,000. So far the state has paid out $391,000, a spokesman for the Department of Management Services said.

But Jason Dimitris, general counsel for the agency, said the state is likely to offer Alston and Bird a second contract since the first one only covered the trial at the circuit court level. Circuit Judge Jackie Fulford has not yet ruled on the pension lawsuit, but the case is expected to be appealed by the losing side.
Dimitris said that everyone involved in the litigation agreed on hiring Alston and Bird initially because of the "complex" nature of the pension lawsuit.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/11/15/2503865/fla-hired-law-firm-with-ties-to.html#ixzz1eHqj2wDq