riminal charges against Miami-Dade Commissioner Joe Martinez were detailed by Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle at a Tuesday news conference, hours after Martinez turned himself into police.
The arrest warrant reveals he is being accused of accepting $15,000 in bribes in exchange for sponsoring a law five years ago to help a shopping plaza that had been repeatedly slapped with fines for code violations. The formal felony charges are unlawful compensation and conspiracy to commit unlawful compensation.
Martinez, 64, has been proclaiming his innocence ever since the impending arrest was leaked to the media over the weekend. His defense attorney has called the charges “politically motivated” to purportedly prevent the term-limited commissioner and retired police lieutenant from running for County Sheriff.
(NBC6)
Miami-Dade County Commissioner Joe Martinez faces possible suspension from office by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Martinez was twice elected to the west Miami-Dade district seat he now holds and had aspirations of becoming the next commission chair, a position he has held twice before. Records show Martinez’s political action committee made more than $100,000 tin donations to commission candidates in the recent August primary with the goal of garnering their support to become chair.
In a statement on Monday, Martinez claimed the “false allegations” arose from his work as a consultant when he was a “private citizen,” and not a public official. The arrest warrant, however, details otherwise. The case was reportedly pieced together through emails, text messages, and financial and phone records.
The investigation has been ongoing for five years, and the state attorney said COVID-19 delayed the investigation from arriving at this determination earlier.
This is the first time a sitting Miami-Dade commissioner has faced corruption charges in 20 years. The Republican commissioner is expected to make his case to the Republican governor that he should be allowed to keep his seat.