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 Mayor Porter Likely Using his Position as Mayor to Profit his Security Company, Records Show

File this one under things that make you go hmmm.

On November 3, 2016, Homestead Police Chief Al Rolle wrote a letter endorsing his boss's company — a company named Solarbeam International Inc., calling the company a "partner in crime deterrence and law enforcement in the city of Homestead."

Solarbeam, essentially a solar-powered perimeter security company, operates out of Homestead.

In his letter promoting Solarbeam products, Chief Rolle admits 13 different city-owned facilities in Homestead have purchased equipment from Solarbeam security systems since 1996 and the chief says the city continues purchasing from the company today.

Chief Rolle uses the Homestead Police Department letterhead and even leaves his phone number as if to pitch the police department as part of the company.

Or is he saying the company is like part of the police department in his letter?

It turns out, Rolle's boss, Mayor Jeff Porter, served as the Sales and Marketing Director of Solarbeam International Inc. from 2012 to 2014. 

Records show  Porter has another company called Worldwide Supply Solutions, which acts as a broker selling Solarbeam products.

Mayor Porter told the Ethics Commission in 2014 that the income he receives from Solarbeam accounts for only 1/2 of 1% of his income, according to an email between Porter and the Ethics Commission, which can be read below.

After working as the sales and marketing director, Porter became the CEO of Solarbeam International Inc. two years later in 2016.

Porter listed Solarbeam on his city financial disclosure records for 2016, which can be read below.

Several months later, Chief Rolle writes his letter endorsing Solarbeam, even leaving his phone number to call if anyone has any questions about buying the product. 

Some may say Chief Rolle's endorsement letter presents a conflict of interest since Rolle wrote a letter supporting his boss's business.

This begs the question: Is Chief Rolle receiving a kickback for endorsing Solarbeam?

Did Chief Rolle use city time or resources to write the letter endorsing his boss's security company?

According to records, hundreds of thousands of Homestead dollars have been paid to Porter's company, Solarbeam International Inc.

Porter became the Mayor of Homestead in 2013.

According to records, Porter's city financial disclosure forms for the years 2013, 2014 and 2015 exclude Solarbeam forms, which is almost certainly a reporting violation for each year.

In 2017, Porter again lists Solarbeam in his city financial disclosure forms, but left the company off of his state financial disclosure forms, which indicates another reporting violation. 

On his 2017 state disclosure forms, Porter listed FPL (Florida Power and Light) and Alena Chemical as his major clients but excludes the same information from the city forms, indicating yet another reporting violation. 

Our recent discovery of these records leaves us with a few vexing questions.

Why is the police chief writing a letter endorsing a company the mayor works for just after Porter becomes the CEO?

Why is Chief Rolle endorsing any company at all using the police department, but especially his boss's?

And if Porter's statements to the ethics commission are true, what's up with all the discrepancies on his state financial disclosure forms when compared to his city financial disclosure forms.

These two forms should have the same information, yet don't line up with the same information.

Both city and state disclosure forms can be read below.

City Disclosure forms: https://www.scribd.com/document/428125817/Mayor-Jeff-Porter-Reporting-Violations-on-City-Disclosure

Mayor Jeff Porter Reporting... by Ben Keller on Scribd

State Disclosure forms:

Mayor Jeff Porter Reporting... by Ben Keller on Scribd