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Armando Martinez
(Note: Articles Appear in Reverse Chronological Order)
Tab 8
paid circulation has plummeted by more than 20,000. Surprise, surprise -- none of that was
mentioned in the WLRN report.
The State Attorney's Office recently closed a case against some high-ranking Miami
police officers suspected of stealing money from a federally funded program to supply security at
public-housing sites. The SAO declined to prosecute.
I wrote about the case in July. Within the MPD it was viewed as one of the last necessary but
painful thresholds the department needed to cross in an effort to reform itself. First was the
indictment and trial last spring of eleven officers in the so-called throw-down gun cases. Then
came the resignation of old-school Chief Raul Martinez and the selection of his replacement,
outsider John Timoney.
Rank and file viewed this latest case as an important investigation because two of the suspect
cops were prominent -- Maj. Mario Garcia, in charge of the South District substation; and Capt.
Armando Martinez, second in command of the department's internal-affairs
bureau. Miami cops are accustomed to seeing powerful officers skate, so they were watching
carefully. Many will be disappointed with this outcome. But it's not for lack of effort. In a yearlong
probe, a task force of the FBI, Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and Miami police
investigated whether the officers submitted invoices for overtime pay without showing up for the
security jobs.
Task force members reviewed hundreds of pages of worksheets for each officer and compared
them with duty rosters and payroll records spanning four years. They found five discrepancies in
Martinez's records, involving less than $700. They found four discrepancies in Garcia's
paperwork, also involving less than $700. And only one discrepancy involving a third officer, Lt.
Alejandro Oliva, for $108. (I had previously identified another officer, Lt. Ramon Fernandez, as
a suspect. While he participated in the security program and his records were reviewed by
investigators, he was not a criminal suspect.)
Given the small dollar amount and the difficulty proving this wasn't just sloppy paperwork, both
federal and state prosecutors took a pass. In an August 22 memorandum, assistant State Attorney
Howard Rosen wrote, "One would expect that if there were any criminal intent, the amounts
involved would be much larger, and that the alleged 'double dipping' would have occurred much
more frequently."
Those following the case can take heart in the fact that it's not over. Chief Timoney says the
matter is now up for internal administrative review. Meanwhile Martinez was transferred from
internal affairs to the criminal investigations unit and Garcia has been demoted from major to
lieutenant.
Speaking of Timoney, two weeks ago he tried to stay one step ahead of the untold number of
protesters who vow to descend on Miami and disrupt the Free Trade Area of the
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