Gary FineoutFormer U.S. Rep. David Rivera broke Florida’s ethics law and should pay nearly $60,000 in fines and restitution, a state panel concluded Friday.
The Miami Republican, who has been a long-time friend of U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, is accused of double-billing taxpayers for travel expenses while he was a state legislator and failing to properly report his income. The unanimous vote by the Florida Commission on Ethics is the latest chapter of a long-running investigation that first began in 2010 before Rivera was elected to Congress.
“This was an activity that went on for years,” Assistant Attorney General Lisa Raleigh told members of the panel. “It was quite frankly, an appalling breach of trust.”
Rivera waited outside the hearing room where the commission deliberated, and later declined to answer questions. But Rivera’s attorney Leonard Collins vowed that his client would appeal the case, primarily over the way it was handled by the state. Collins also disputed that the commission even had the authority to investigate some of the charges against Rivera.
“Mr. Rivera’s due process rights have been denied by the actions of this commission,” said Collins, an attorney with the firm of Broad and Cassel who once worked for Rubio. Rubio also worked at the same law firm prior to his election to the U.S. Senate.
Collins, for, example pointed out that some of the legal missteps by the main attorney handling the case were considered so serious that she was demoted from her job late last year.
Rivera was once the powerful budget chief in the Florida House before he was elected to Congress. He and Rubio still own a home in Tallahassee that was purchased while both men were in the Legislature. The house was recently placed on the market.
Rivera served one term in Congress representing a district that stretches from south Miami-Dade County to Key West. He was defeated in 2012 by Joe Garcia, who himself was defeated this past November. That campaign, however, triggered a federal investigation.
Justin Sternad, a candidate in the race, along with co-defendant Ana Alliegro, eventually admitted scheming to provide more than $80,000 in secret financing to Sternad’s candidacy in the Democratic primary in an attempt to weaken Garcia. They say Rivera was ultimately behind the plan, but he has not been charged and denies wrongdoing. Alliegro was a one-time close associate of Rivera.
The ethics charges decided Friday are unrelated to that congressional campaign.
But because they stem from actions he took while he was in the Legislature a final decision on whether to force Rivera to pay the fines and restitution will be up to House Speaker Steve Crisafulli. The commission has also urged the speaker to publicly reprimand Rivera.
Collins, who worked in the state House while Rubio was speaker, said that the House has declined in the past to impose penalties on legislators once they had left office.
Michael Williams, a spokesman for Crisafulli, would not say what the House would do with Rivera’s case.
“This is a very serious issue,” Williams said in an email. “However, Mr. Rivera has a right to appeal the Ethics Commission’s decision before the issue comes before the House. The House will not have a comment on this matter until then.”
State prosecutors in Miami previously pursued up to 52 possible ethics and campaign finance violation charges against Rivera related to his personal use of campaign money and a $1 million contract he had with a Florida gambling company, but investigators in 2012 decided to bring no charges in part because the statutes of limitation had expired. Ethics investigators had placed their probe into Rivera on hold until after the criminal investigation had finished.
Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
