A jury of former Miami-Dade Commissioner Joe Martinez’s peers have found him guilty of political corruption, agreeing with prosecutors that he misused his elected office for personal gain.
Martinez, who won five terms on the County Commission after a nearly two-decade police career, was convicted on felony charges of improper compensation and conspiracy to commit unlawful compensation.
The first is punishable by up to 15 years in prison. The second carries an up to five-year sentence.
According to WPLG Local 10, jurors handed down their verdict shortly after 5 p.m. on Thursday after just a few hours of deliberation. Witness testimony lasted seven days, NBC 6 reported.
During the trial, Miami-Dade Assistant State Attorney Tim VanderGiesen laid out a somewhat complex case involving three $5,000 payments Martinez took in 2016 and 2017 accepted from Jorge Negrin, owner of Extra Supermarket of West Miami-Dade.
Martinez, VanderGiesen argued, took the money in exchange for filing an ordinance that would end fines that Negrin and his landlord, Sergio Delgado, received for having too many storage containers at Delgado’s shopping plaza. Martinez’s Office placed the legislation on the County Commission’s agenda in August 2017 but quickly pulled it from consideration. But Florida law provides that only intent must be proven, and the prosecution’s case provided ample evidence to support its case that Martinez’s motivation for filing the measure was financial.
But as the Miami Herald reported, VanderGiesen said the scheme went deeper. While Martinez was trying to provide Negrin and Delgado relief, the prosecutor said, Martinez was also working to get a bridge loan for his then-boss, Centurion Securities owner Ed Heflin, so Heflin could then pay the former Commissioner.
Martinez, 66, also helped Heflin secure a $16 million contract with the county’s Water and Sewer Department, VanderGiesen said, through which the defendant stood to earn up to $100,000. Martinez was never paid, the Herald said, and recused himself from a final vote on the contract after State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle’s Office launched a probe into the matter.
An arrest warrant Political Cortadito flagged days before Martinez’s arrest in late August 2022 cited bank records and numerous emails, texts and phone exchanges between Martin, Negrin and Delgado. That included a nearly seven-minute phone call Martinez had with Delgado on the day he shelved the legislation.
Before, during and after the case, Martinez denied all wrongdoing and asserted the charges were “politically motivated.” He and his lawyer, Benedict Kuehne, argued he was a private citizen working as a consultant during the time prosecutors said he acted unlawfully.
A former Miami-Dade police lieutenant and two-time Chair of the County Commission, Martinez served in two separate stints since 2000 as a Commissioner. He was out of office between 2012 and 2016, when he unsuccessfully ran for Mayor and Florida’s 26th Congressional District.
He was one of more than a dozen Republicans who filed to run in the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s race this year, placing fifth with 9.5% of the vote in the Aug. 20 Primary behind the eventual winner, Assistant Miami-Dade Police Director Rosie Cordero-Stutz.
Gov. Ron DeSantis removed Martinez from office in September 2022 and appointed lawyer Rob Gonzalez, a prior House candidate, as his replacement in Miami-Dade Commission District 11 two months later. Gonzalez won election to his seat in August, easily dispatching two challengers with 57% of the vote.
Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Miguel M. de la O said Martinez’s sentencing will happen after Dec. 20.