Latest news with #Miami-DadeStateAttorney'sOffice
Express Tribune
3 days ago
- Express Tribune
Roc Nation CEO Desiree Perez sued by daughter
Desiree Perez, CEO and cofounder of Roc Nation, is facing serious legal allegations from her daughter, Demoree Hadley, who has filed a lawsuit claiming Perez used unlawful methods to have her falsely detained under Florida's Baker Act and Marchman Act. The report, originally published by NBC6 South Florida, outlines accusations that Perez manipulated the system using her influence and resources. According to the lawsuit, Hadley alleges she was institutionalized in mental health facilities for two weeks without clear justification. She submitted medical documentation and body camera footage that allegedly shows a mobile crisis unit instructing her to enter a gray pickup truck. A doctor later evaluated Hadley, referencing family statements—including those from Perez and an aunt—that claimed she had attempted an overdose the previous night. Hadley's lawsuit further accuses Perez of leveraging her wealth and status to interfere in her marriage to Javon Hadley, alleging that Perez fabricated domestic violence claims to separate the couple. In response, Perez had previously filed her own lawsuit against Javon, alleging he had abused Hadley for years. Both Hadley and her husband deny these claims. Hilton Napoleon II, the attorney representing Hadley, stated, 'I haven't seen anything in my entire 20 years of practicing law that is so clear that someone did something wrong.' He also referenced an 11-page memorandum from the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office that reportedly criticized Perez's accusations as false and unsupported by evidence. Hadley was released from the last of her mental health detentions in April after Perez dismissed the case. The legal battle continues to unfold, highlighting a complex and deeply personal conflict within a high-profile family.
Miami Herald
07-05-2025
- Miami Herald
3 busted in sex trafficking sting during week of F-1 Miami Grand Prix: officials
Miami-Dade County 3 busted in sex trafficking sting during week of F-1 Miami Grand Prix: officials Investigators arrested three men during a joint human trafficking sting operation headed by the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office over the weekend. Three men were arrested on human trafficking charges during a joint federal, state and local sting operation conducted to coincide with the week of the Formula One Miami Grand Prix, according to the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office. The undercover operation — dubbed Operation Grease Monkey — targeted people looking to engage in sexual acts with minors between the ages of 12 and 14 years old, prosecutors said Tuesday. The men arrested responded to ads placed by undercover detectives. When they spoke with a detective posing as pimps, they were told that minors were available for sex in exchange for money, said State Attorney's Office spokeswoman Lissette Valdes-Valle. When the men traveled to a hotel, which was not named by the State Attorney's Office, they paid the undercover officer money and were given keys to rooms where they were told the underage girls would be. Each man was arrested when he opened the hotel room door, Valdes-Valles said. The meet-ups happened between Tuesday and Friday, the State Attorney's Office said. 'The ugly crime of Human Trafficking is made even more dreadful when the intended victims are children. Sadly, individuals are looking specifically for young victims,' Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said in a statement. 'Fortunately, as this joint effort shows, the Miami-Dade law enforcement community is united to fight such predators.' Arrested were: Daniel Xavier Oneil, 27; Tito Xavier Gutierrez, 38; and Tangir Jamil Riman, 27. Each man is charged with one count each of human trafficking, which is a first-degree felony, traveling to meet a minor for sex, a second-degree felony, and using an electronic device to solicit a parent to consent sex conduct with a child, which is a third-degree felony. As of Tuesday, Oneil and Riman were being held at Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on no bond on the trafficking and traveling to meet minors charges, and a $2,500 bond for the count of using an electronic device to solicit sex. Gutierrez was being held at Metro West Detention Center on the same conditions. Attorneys for Gutierrez and Riman could not immediately be reached for comment. Information on Oneil's legal representation was not immediately available. The State Attorney's Office worked with several agencies during the multi-day operation, including the Miami, Coral Gables, Hialeah, Miami Beach, Key Biscayne, Sunny Isles and Surfside police departments, the Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office and U.S. Homeland Security Investigations. Investigators ask anyone with information about human trafficking in South Florida to call the State Attorney's Office hotline at 305-FIX-STOP (305-349-7867) or to scan the agency's QR code. Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office Human Trafficking Hotline David Goodhue Miami Herald Go to X Go to Facebook Email this person 305-923-9728 David Goodhue covers the Florida Keys and South Florida for and the Miami Herald. Before joining the Herald, he covered Congress, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy in Washington, D.C. He is a graduate of the University of Delaware.
Miami Herald
30-04-2025
- Miami Herald
FIU investigating longtime law professor for inappropriate sexual conduct'
A 20-year FIU College of Law professor who works with the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office has been banned from campus since January while the school investigates 'credible concerns of ongoing inappropriate sexual misconduct.' That's from a Jan. 21, 2025, letter hand-delivered to professor H. Scott Fingerhut, 62, from Interim Director and Title IX Coordinator Jacqueline Moise Gibbs informing Fingerhut he was on administrative leave 'effective immediately.' The letter said FIU's Office of Civil Rights Compliance and Accessibility has 'received multiple reports with credible concerns of ongoing inappropriate sexual misconduct, including but not limited to showing students animal genitalia, statements of a sexual nature and other statements that could be construed as intimidating or retaliatory.' During an initial review by the civil rights agency, the letter said, 'complainants expressed emotional distress, anxiety and fear of retaliation.' Based on that initial review and analysis, the letter said, the agency determined that there was a basis for placing Fingerhut on administrative leave as 'an immediate threat to the health, safety or welfare of the University or University Community arising from allegations of violations of FIU 105,' the school's sexual harassment and sexual misconduct regulation. The leave bans Fingerhut, assistant director of Florida International University's Trial Advocacy Program, from both FIU campuses, all FIU-owned buildings and FIU-sponsored events. Other professors taught his classes this semester at FIU. His name didn't appear on the preliminary list of classes for the fall semester. FIU wouldn't elaborate on the accusations against Fingerhut, stating in an email by FIU spokeswoman Madeline Baro, 'It is the university's practice not to comment on personnel matters.' Fingerhut emailed the Miami Herald that he was 'eager, without question or hesitation' to answer why he wasn't teaching classes this semester, but university policy prevented him 'from doing so, for the moment.' Fingerhut: 'Institutional fear' and 'the softening of America' Fingerhut, however, did express his feelings in the draft of a possible answer to Miami Herald questions, which he sent a colleague in the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office via an email. The Herald obtained that email through a public records request. Along with 'being a school teacher is one of the great blessings of my life,' he wrote, 'I believe in fact, fairness and the arc of justice. And, what is going on right now is as personally painful and profoundly disappointing as you might imagine.' Fingerhut said he was grateful for the 'faith and confidence of those around me, especially my superiors,' and closed with: 'Let what's happening to me, now publicly, for some reason, serve as a warning of what can happen to any of us who get caught in a system where the inmates run the asylum — where institutional fear has fallen prey to today's cancel and consumer cultures, and the softening of America dares to ruin anyone, even at the highest educational level.' Former rookie prosecutor returns as training supervisor Fingerhut has been a Florida Bar member since 1989 and began his legal career at the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office as an assistant state attorney. He left the office in 1992, then, while becoming a criminal defense attorney widely held in high esteem, began teaching at the University of Miami's School of Law. His 10 years there have been followed by 20 at FIU. His current position in the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office, which he has held since August, amounts to a teaching position, too. As Special Counsel to the State Attorney, he's asked to supervise the training of prosecutors in evidence gathering, ethics and trial advocacy. 'Since coming on board, Scott's work with our office has been limited to partnering with my senior staff and trainers on various training topics,' a statement from Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez-Rundle said in part. Fingerhut's tasks are similar to those that were going to be performed by Steve Gosney, who was hired last year in the wake of questionable prosecutor conduct. Gosney took the job last summer, but was out two months later in the hubbub over a fictional book he authored that contained sexual violence. MORE: Lawyer and Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office ending relationship over book fuss The Miami-Dade State Attorney's office hired Fingerhut the month Gosney left. Fingerhut has chaired numerous professional committees and currently heads the Florida Bar's Leadership Academy Committee and Code & Rules of Evidence Committee. He has piled up honors, including from the Dade County Bar for pro bono work. The statement from Fernandez-Rundle said Fingerhut informed her office of his administrative leave from FIU on Jan. 21, the day of the letter. Fingerhut remains in his position at the State Attorney's Office. 'As an office that is committed to due process and fair impartial investigations, we are hopeful that FIU 's inquiry will proceed expeditiously and that it will ensure that all involved parties are given the opportunity to address all the issues in an open and fair manner,' Fernandez-Rundle's statement said. 'Once that process has concluded, we will review the findings.'
Miami Herald
24-03-2025
- Miami Herald
Experts to inspect George Pino's boat. Trial for fatal vessel crash planned for July
The 29-foot boat involved in a deadly 2022 Labor Day weekend crash that killed an Our Lady of Lourdes Academy senior and permanently disabled her classmate is the latest focus in the felony case against Miami-Dade real estate broker George Pino. Both Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office prosecutors and Pino's defense attorneys plan to have experts inspect the Robalo center console early next month. 'The state has retained an accident reconstructionist as well as a marine mechanic expert. They are going to be present for the inspection,' Assistant State Attorney Laura Adams said during a status hearing on the case at the Miami-Dade County courthouse Friday morning. On Sept. 4, 2022, George Pino was operating the boat through a channel in Biscayne Bay, heading back to Ocean Reef Club in north Key Largo from an outing celebrating his daughter's 18th birthday on Elliott Key. His wife, Cecilia, and 11 of his daughter's friends were on the vessel when Pino slammed it into a fixed channel marker at a high rate of speed, ejecting and injuring everyone on board. READ MORE: How investigators, prosecutors bungled probe into boat crash that killed teen girl After a nearly year-long investigation by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the state police agency that investigates boat crashes, prosecutors in August 2023 charged Pino with three misdemeanor counts of careless boating. The minor charge, which carries a maximum sentence of 60 days in jail, outraged the families of Luciana Fernandez — who died from her injuries in the hospital the day after the crash at the age of 17 — and of Katerina Puig, now 19, a standout soccer player who was left with a lifetime of disabilities. After a series of articles by the Miami Herald showing police and prosecutors never followed up with key eyewitnesses, a new witness approached prosecutors, a Miami-Dade firefighter who fished Pino out of the water that day, who told them that, in his opinion, Pino showed signs he had been drinking. READ MORE: Prosecutors didn't talk to eyewitness before filing misdemeanor charges in deadly boat crash This prompted the State Attorney's Office in late October to re-open its investigation and drop the misdemeanor counts and charge Pino — president of State Street Realty in Doral — with felony vessel homicide, a form of manslaughter in which a person kills another due to the reckless operation of a boat. He now faces 15 years in prison if convicted. Another controversy surrounding the first investigations by the FWC and State Attorney's Office is that alcohol was immediately ruled out despite Pino telling police that night that he had 'two beers' prior to the crash, and that investigators found more than 60 empty containers of various forms of alcohol on board his boat when they pulled it from the water the next day. READ MORE: 61 booze containers on crashed boat in Keys — and parents outraged over minor charges Pino, 54, pleaded not guilty to both the misdemeanor counts and now to the felony counts, maintaining — despite contrary statements from witnesses and photographic evidence from on the water that day — that a larger boat traveling in the opposite direction threw a wake that caused him to lose control of his Robalo. Pino's attorney, Howard Srebnick, issued a statement Friday saying prosecutors have yet to provide evidence or witnesses supporting elevating the case to a felony. 'This month we will continue to engage key prosecution witnesses through depositions and are confident that none of the State's witnesses will offer any evidence that this tragedy was anything more than a horrible accident, not a crime,' Srebnick said. A trial is scheduled for July. Mark Shapiro, another attorney for Pino, told Circuit Judge Marisa Tinkler Mendez Friday that his team is set to begin taking depositions from witnesses, including police officers who responded to the scene that day, and the depositions are expected to continue through March. Both sides plan to inspect the boat in early March. The vessel is parked, wrapped in plastic, at FWC's North Miami Beach headquarters, Adams said, adding it 'sustained massive damage' in the crash.
Miami Herald
26-02-2025
- Politics
- Miami Herald
Hate crime enhancer attached to charges against Miami Beach man after double shooting
Miami-Dade prosecutors put a hate crime enhancement on the charges against a Miami Beach man charged in the Feb. 15 shooting of two Israeli tourists. Monday's action turns the two counts of second-degree attempted murder against 27-year-old Mordechai Brafman into first-degree attempted murder counts. The charges will be formally filed and Brafman will enter a plea at his Mar. 10 arraignment. Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office spokesman Ed Griffith said in an email that the office 'reviews every criminal offense that has the potential of being motivated by hate, to see if Florida's hate crime enhancement statute is applicable to the specific situation.' Brafman, police say in the arrest report, 'spontaneously stated' to them that 'while he was driving his truck, he saw two Palestinians and shot and killed both.' READ MORE: Why were 2 people shot in Miami Beach? The suspect said he 'saw 2 Palestinians,' cops say Brafman didn't kill Ari Rabi and father Yaron Rabi, Israelis who were fellow members of the Jewish faith. Social media posts by the Rabis back up police statements that Ari was shot in the left shoulder and a bullet grazed Yaron in a forearm. Police say Brafman and the Rabis didn't know each other, and surveillance video shows Brafman firing 17 shots at the Rabis' Hyundai as it passed in the 4800 block of Pine Tree Drive. The Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Florida chapter released a statement Tuesday in praise of the hate crime enhancement. Miami Beach City Commissioner Alex Fernandez and Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava came out last week in favor of the hate crime enhancement, but CAIR-Florida spokesman Wilfredo Amr Ruiz wanted to see more. 'To date, we have not heard or read any statement from Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner or Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava assuring the safety and security of Palestinian and Arab residents and visitors. 'We find their silence appalling and an affront to their constituents, residents, and visitors — Muslims and Christians of Arab or Palestinian descent. Mayor Meiner and Mayor Levine Cava must publicly assure these communities and their families that they are safe on the streets of Miami Beach and throughout the county.' Brafman is being held on no bond at Miami-Dade Corrections' Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center. 'Mr. Brafman is forced to spend the majority of his time in custody in isolation, and without proper mental health treatment and support,' his attorney, Dustin Tischler, said in a text message. In an email last week, Tischler said Brafman was having 'a severe mental health emergency' at the time of the shooting and 'his ability to make sound judgments was significantly compromised.' Tischler said Wednesday that 'Mr. Brafman is currently being evaluated by several medical professionals to determine his competency to proceed as well as his mental capacity at the time of the incident.'
