Jesse Scheckner
A final effort by former Miami-Dade Commissioner Joe Martinez to receive a new trial or acquittal after being convicted on political corruption charges has failed.
He’s expected to be sentenced June 20.
Jurors found Martinez, a former county police lieutenant who won five terms on the County Commission and served twice as its Chair, guilty in November on felony charges of improper compensation and conspiracy to commit the crime.
The first is punishable by up to 15 years in prison. The second carries a five-year sentence.
In March, Martinez’s lawyers moved to vacate the conviction. They argued state prosecutors misled jurors and the defense by saying Martinez “created legislation” in 2017 in exchange for three $5,000 payments he began receiving the year before.
The lawyers, Kendall Coffey and Ben Kuehne, said Martinez drafted a document the 13-member County Commission could — but didn’t — vote on, and that prosecutors conflated that with the term “creating legislation” of which Martinez’s actions were a part.
The defense asked Judge Miguel de la O to overturn the verdict and acquit Martinez based on insufficient evidence. In a 22-page opinion issued Saturday, first flagged by Charles Rabin of the Miami Herald, the Judge appeared to agree with that latter sticking point, noting he was surprised by the jury’s decision because the case hinged largely on “circumstantial” evidence.
But he rejected the premise of Coffey and Kuehne’s contention that what Martinez did wasn’t “creating legislation.”
“The fallacy of this argument is that the creation of legislation is a process, it is not synonymous with passing or implementing legislation,” he wrote.
During the trial, Miami-Dade Assistant State Attorney Tim VanderGiesen laid out a somewhat complex case involving $15,000 Martinez received in 2016 and 2017 from Jorge Negin, owner of Extra Supermarket in West Miami-Dade.
VanderGiesen argued Martinez took the money in exchange for filing an ordinance that would end fines 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.
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 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 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 lawyers said he was a private citizen working as a consultant when prosecutors said he acted unlawfully.
In a brief phone call Monday evening with Florida Politics, he reiterated that assertion.
“I didn’t do it.”
Martinez served in two separate stints on the Miami-Dade Commission between 2000 and September 2022, when he was suspended from office by Gov. Ron DeSantis. He was out of office between 2012 and 2016, when he unsuccessfully ran for Mayor and Florida’s 26th Congressional District.
In June 2024, five and half months before his conviction, Martinez entered a crowded race for Miami-Dade Sheriff. Previously considered a top contender for the returning position, he ultimately placed fifth with 9.5% of the vote in the Aug. 20 Primary.
