Former Miami-Dade County Commissioner Joe Martinez was discovered responsible Thursday of illegal compensation and conspiracy, after a jury convicted him on costs associated to accepting monetary advantages in change for political favors.
The decision got here after every week of witness testimony and deliberation by six jurors, who discovered Martinez responsible of leveraging his elected workplace for private achieve. Prosecutors argued that in 2022, Martinez accepted $15,000 from grocery store proprietor Jorge Negrin to draft county laws that will ease restrictions on storage containers, enabling Negrin to park containers on his enterprise property with out going through hefty fines.
“In each public corruption prosecution, an try is made to belittle the proof by claiming that politics, not the proofs, are the supply of the legal costs,” stated Miami-Dade State Lawyer Katherine Fernandez Rundle in an announcement. “With the responsible verdict towards former County Commissioner Joe Martinez, six Miami-Dade County residents …determined that utilizing one’s elected place for a monetary profit won’t be tolerated on this group.”
Martinez’s lawyer, Benedict Kuehne, defended his shopper as a well-respected public servant who had helped others with out searching for monetary achieve. “An individual with a historical past of doing all the pieces proper,” Kuehne argued. Negrin, too, insisted the $15,000 was not a bribe however an expression of appreciation for Martinez’s previous help in securing an investor for his retailer.
Prosecutors, nevertheless, introduced proof exhibiting that Martinez’s workplace coordinated a gathering with code enforcement and Negrin to debate the laws change. They argued that monetary stress could have pushed Martinez’s actions, as his paycheck from Centurion Safety, the place he labored as an account supervisor, had began bouncing, affecting his funds. Prosecutors advised Martinez sought assist from property proprietor Sergio Delgado to safe a financial institution mortgage.
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Martinez denied all allegations, together with claims of economic hardship and the alleged mortgage request. He selected to not testify in his protection. Following the conviction, State Lawyer Rundle praised her workforce, saying, “I applaud the gifted prosecutorial workforce … for successfully bringing forth the important case components that led to this verdict.”
Martinez’s sentencing is pending, and he faces potential penalties for the costs.