Former Homestead Police Officer Running for City Council has Paid the Price for Blowing the Whistle on Corruption

The corruption was so criminal, even the Police Benevolent Association called for the arrest and incarceration of fellow officers.

"The chief should go to jail. The captain should go to jail," Dade PBA president John Rivera told the Miami Herald back in 2014.

"We are hoping to see some arrests out of this."

But nobody ever went to jail.
 
However, Homestead Police Chief Al Rolle did fire former Police Captain Bobby Rea on Christmas Eve, 2013.

But that's only because Rea had reported to authorities that government officials within the Homestead Police Department were tampering with public records, which is a crime.

And Chief Rolle had signed off on the tampered records.

"I made a phone call to the state to seek advice because it was a criminal matter," Rea explained to the South Dade News-Leader in June 2014.

"I told them what I was told. I followed the advice they gave me."

It began in 2011 when Edna Marie Hernandez, a police secretary, approached then Captain Rea after her superior, Captain Marie Kent, ordered her to create a fake log sheet for records requested by another Homestead police officer, Sergeant Lizanne Deegan.

Deegan was trying to win her job back after being terminated.

She wanted to show in arbitration proceedings that she was treated more harshly than other officers who were disciplined for similar things.

But Captain Kent ordered Hernandez to create false destruction reports, so the department could deny having the records. 

After creating the fake, back-dated records, Hernandez took them to Chief Rolle and Captain Kent, who signed off on them.

Hernandez has since been given immunity from prosecution for her part in the ordeal.

She says she could have gone to a hundred other police employees about her superiors ordering her to commit records violations, including supervisors. 

Hernandez, who has been silent since the ordeal, is now speaking publicly for the first time about how she was afraid, to tell the truth, at first.

But she ultimately did the right thing.

"I chose to tell the truth. I had over a hundred employees at the police department I could disclose this to, including over a dozen supervisors. And I chose Bobby Rea."

"I didn't know Bobby Rea too well at the time. But I knew him to be honest and knowledgeable. I'll never forget his response to me. He looked right at me and said, 'I need you to understand I can't ignore what you just told me.'"

Hernandez described the immense pressure she was put under when contemplating whether or not to come forward or stay silent. And then the relief she felt after confiding in Rea.

"I started crying; I put my head down. We stood there for a minute, and he said 'I can't imagine how hard it was to tell me this," she recalled.

"Doing the right thing cost him his job. He was fired shortly after."

After reporting public records crimes to the state officials at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), Rea says he was treated with hostility — like he was an outsider — before he was eventually fired.

"Certainly, my relationship was restrained. At best," Rea recalled during an interview with the South Dade News-Leader.

"The ultimate hostile act would be the termination."

But that's all behind him.

Now Bobby Rea, a former police officer for the Homestead Police Department for 25 years, is running for Homestead city council seat 3 and would like your vote.

As part of his platform, Bobby Rea wants to focus on government transparency and public safety. 

As a former police officer, Rea thinks the Homestead Police Department should require body cams for all of its officers — just like Miami Dade's 1,500 police officers — so what happened to him doesn't happen again.

"I'm not a 'politician,'" he explains.

"I have no intention of becoming what you may expect. I'm driven by my own experiences both inside and outside of the political structure. It is that very machine that concerns me today. I'm running for city council not as an insider, but as an alternative to the status quo."

Rea would also like to focus on traffic, which he calls a "nightmare," as well as infrastructure.

Early voting begins this weekend.

The general election for Homestead will be held on Tuesday, November 5, 2019.

Homestead Developer who Showers Politicians with Donations let off Scot Free for Illegal Lobbying Fee

A Homestead mega-developer known for using federal loan money slated for low-income redevelopment to build a country club and golf course instead escaped punishment for accepting a $500,000 illegal contingency fee.

Wayne Rosen, a South Dade developer, was paid the illegal contingency fee for lobbying on behalf of Red Apple LLC, a subsidiary of Charter Schools USA (CSUSA), the firm that built Keys Gate Charter High School. 

Keys Gate is a tuition-free charter school serving elementary and middle school students in Homestead.

The ethics violation was only discovered during the prosecution of former Homestead Mayor Steve Bateman.

Bateman was convicted in 2014 on two counts of public corruption, which earned him a 22-month prison sentence.

Rosen was let off the hook . . . but only after being granted immunity from criminal prosecution for giving his sworn statements in the trial against Bateman in 2013.

Rosen accepted two payments of $250,000 in exchange for lobbying before the Homestead City Council, records show.

However, the three-year period for filing a formal ethics complaint against Rosen had run out. 

Walter Harvey, an attorney for the Miami-Dade Public School District, filed a complaint in June 2016 with the Miami-Dade Commissions on Ethics and Public Trust. 

But that was about nine months too late.

The illegal scheme began in 2010 when Red Apple entered into a 35-year-lease agreement with the city of Homestead for the construction and development of the Keys Gate Charter High School, or Keys Gate.

The plans for Keys Gate were developed during 2010 and 2011.

The development project would utilize tax-exempt revenue bonds intended for educational facilities to build the school.

Then, later, Rosen entered into an "illegal contingency fee" arrangement with Red Apple in 2011 and 2012 while the loan for the project was pending approval by Homestead City Council members.

According to records from the ethics violation investigation, Rosen assisted Charter Schools USA and Red Apple in applying for the loan approval by Homestead City Council members.

The Homestead City Council ultimately approved the deal on behalf of the city of Homestead.

During that process, Rosen met with CSUSA staff and elected officials before the construction of the school, the investigation found.

Miami-Dade County's conflict of interest and ethics code prohibits paying contingency fees for lobbying.

The county defines a contingency fee as a "fee, bonus, commission or other compensation contingent on any action, decision or recommendation by any city board, council or staff."

An audit conducted by the School Board in 2015 confirmed $500,000 had been paid to an "undisclosed party" in connection with the development of Keys Gate, which used tax-exempt educational revenue bonds for the cost of its construction.

During his sworn statement to the prosecution of Bateman on February 8, 2013, Rosen admitted on record that he originally had negotiated a $1 million fee with CSUSA.

But that didn't pan out.

"What was the contingency on?" Rosen was asked during his statement.

"Approval of the charter school," the ethics report record says.

Rosen added, on record, that he was expected to work with Homestead city officials at the time to submit the project's application and request all of the needed approvals.

During questioning, Rosen was asked if that process entailed any lobbying.

"I presume so," he replied.

Ethics investigator Karl Ross stated in his close-out report that Rosen violated Miami-Dade County's ethics code.

"Rosen's arrangement with CSUSA would appear to violate the Miami-Dade County ethics code with respect to the contingency fees," Ross wrote.

"It does not appear that the ethics commission can take any further action against Rosen or by extension, CSUSA," he added.

Rosen and his business associates contributed $45,000 to Homestead City Council members for the 2015 election cycle alone, according to an investigative report by the Miami Herald. 

Wayne Rosen also loaned money to a Homestead City Councilman for his failed fish restaurant.

Below, you can read the complaint filed by Harvey with the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics & Public Trust claiming that enforcement action, stemming from an improper payment, should be taken against Rosen.

The complaint states that in exchange for assisting CSUSA, or Red Apple, with obtaining all the necessary approvals from Homestead City Council members, Wayne Rosen ultimately received $500,000 in illegal funds in two separate $250,000 payments.

However, he was expecting $1,000,000, according to records of his testimony.

Wayne Rosen Accepted Illega... by Ben Keller on Scribd

 Wayne Rosen Accepted Illega... by Ben Keller on Scribd