The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - #BecauseMiami: Failed City State

Episode Date: November 21, 2025

Andres Rivero is the attorney representing our friend Dr. Marvin Dunn. Dr. Dunn sued to prevent a parcel of land owned by Miami Dade College from being transferred to Donald Trump without proper notice to the public. He talks about process with Billy Corben. Plus, Alex DeLuca of the Miami New Times updates us on the guy who was known as the most corrupt cop in the history of Miami Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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The night starts with Pascal Seaccombe and the Indiana Pacers meeting Donovan Mitchell and the Cleveland Cavaliers. A matchup that if Tyrese Halliburton was healthy probably would have been a potential Easter conference finals preview. Instead, you got Donovan Mitchell who's averaged at about 30 a game.

and the Pacers who are struggling, but those games on Prime are always intense. And then it's down to Texas as Nikola Yokic and the Denver Nuggets, as Big Honey plays some of the best basketball of his career, which is certainly saying something, get their first look at Kevin Durant and the new look, Houston Rockets. If you're not a prime member, that's not a problem. Just sign up for a 30-day free trial to get started today. Pacers, Cavs, Nuggets, and Rockets.

Coverage starts tomorrow. At 6.30 p.m. Eastern. Only on Prime. Restrictions apply. See Amazon.com slash Amazon Prime for details. Another setback for the state in donating land in downtown Miami for the future Trump presidential library. An appeals court rejected Attorney General James Oathmeyer's request to overturn a lower court's ruling blocking Miami-Dade College from giving away the land. The lawsuit was based on whether the school's board of trustees violated Florida's sunshine law when it voted to give away the land without providing.

providing reasonable notice to the public. Andres Rivera of Rivera Mestre is the attorney representing Dr. Marvin Dunn, a friend of the show, in his case against Miami-Dade College Board of Trustees. And now the state of Florida has intervened or is trying to intervene. Anyway, Andreas, I guess, congratulations on. on this latest ruling from the third DCA last week. First, tell us what happened there. I guess what, this is the Attorney General of the state of Florida, James Othmeyer,

who has been a subject on this program in the past, mostly for his involvement in the Hope Florida scandal, which has become the subject of a criminal grand jury in Leon County and the possible alleged wire fraud and money laundering by a Republican representative in Tallahassee during the legislature. session, all kinds of chicanery. And what is it that he is trying to do here and that the third DCA put a stop to? So we got, working with my co-counsel, Richard Brodsky, we got an injunction against this transfer of land next to Freedom Tower for nothing. We got an injunction, and they

tried to get an emergency appeal to the third DCA where they thought it would get a better hearing to overturn our TRO. And the third DCA said, nope, we're going to do this in the normal course. We don't see an emergency here, which I think is a good sign that what we believe is true, which is the judge has made a careful decision below it. That's interesting. So was he, for lack of a better term, judge shopping? Was he looking for, like you said, a friendlier venue? Oh, I don't think there's any doubt about it. I think they thought that they had the judges of 30 DCA, which, by the way, are very good, very fair judges. I think they thought that because they were appointees of this governor and the prior governor that they had a more favorable audience.

But that court refused to do what they asked. So I think that, again, is a good sign. You're saying the court did its job. The judges, they reviewed the pleadings. I don't know if they heard your arguments or not. But like they, and they determined what the most just course of action was. There are still good judges out there. It's funny, every time, you know, I have to do, I have to do.

I'm asked to do a sample ballot and post it on lines that people have. have a guide, particularly for the races that are more obscure, candidates that they're unfamiliar with, and the judge races, which I think incidentally is terrible. Judges running for office, I think, is just generally a bad idea. They should not be in that world, in my opinion. That said, we have judges who we elect, and nobody knows who they are. You know, none of the voters know who they are. So I take a lot of time and trouble to learn about them. I call a lot of friends in the Florida bar, who I would deem to be conservative, who I would deem to be liberal, or at least left of center and right of center, because I don't judge a judge based on who

appoints them because you talk to people and they say, hey, listen, there's good judges, they're bad judges of all kinds, but if they're fair, you know, I don't always win in front of them, but they listen to my arguments, they carefully consider them and they, and I think that that's, especially now more than ever, that is encouraging sign that the entirety of the judiciary has not been politicized. Absolutely. And, you know, sometimes it's underestimated. In our system, and I do a lot of business cross-border to Latin America, this is still a reliable system. And we have good judges on that third DCA and in our trial court, and we got a great one, Judge Mavelle, Ruiz. That said, because clearly we've had Dr. Dun on the program to talk about this issue and the concern about the gifting of a beautiful parcel right across the street here next to the Freedom Tower. Listen, I think for me, I'm somewhat indifferent in that, like, there's going to be a library hotel and casino somewhere, you know, to celebrate Donald Trump's presidency, and it might as well be in Miami or downtown Miami.

The issue here, of course, is that you have a piece of property owned by a very important college. I say very important for the education of our community, very important to the economy of our community. They're in downtown Miami, which means there's not a lot of place to go. There's not property is scarce. Property is expensive. They've got this parcel. they bought many years ago for 24 million. It's now worth, potentially, up to 350 million in the market.

And they want to give it away to a billionaire politician. And they wanted to do it secretly with a meeting that was not properly noticed. They rubber stamped it. They sent it up. I mean, this was pretty fucking shady, man. And you're not letting them get away with it. And so now what? There is so much wrong with the way this went down.

but the legal issue, just to be clear with your audience, the legal issue is they tried to do it in the dark. And we have a sunshine in government law. What we're looking for is we're going to take discovery and we're going to find how did this go down? How is it possible? You gave no notice. And then seven days later, you had a unanimous vote at 8 a.m.

They called the meeting at 8 a.m., did the pledge, did a moment of silence, and voted by 803. And then by 8.11, Uthmire has a slickly produced video about the whole deal. How do you do that? How do you know that you're getting the vote and that you can produce the video and put it up? We're going to find out what happened. You're saying the fix was in.

I think I'm putting the pieces together in my head very slowly. I will say this. Given that notice, nobody who wasn't in on the deal could know what was going down. So let me ask you this. Why not just on the part of the Miami-Dade College Board of Trustees? And of course, I know this went up to the cabinet, the governor's, cabinet in Tallahassee where they're very quickly rubber-stampeded as well why not just null and void the whole damn thing notice it properly publicly hold a public meeting now it'll be a bummer

because a lot of people will probably show up i've seen the polling even republicans are against this land grab in this way without getting at least fair market value for this piece of property but they could listen to a bunch of angry people for a few hours and then rubber stamp it irregardless, and then it goes up to the, to tell, and they get rid of you, they get rid of all this Hazarai. Why not just do that? Besides everything else, we're lacking common sense in our state, and I'm a native. I'm a native, and I love Miami, but this makes no sense. We suggested in court, Judge Ruiz said to him, why don't you just, you got the power. Just call the meeting right and take your vote, take the heat. Sometimes things happen, Billy. I will say, sometimes,

when you have 80% of the people against you, maybe that's why they want to do it. Why don't they just do it again? Common sense. Just do it. You got the votes. I'm wondering, though, does this have to do with, I don't know any of the folks on the board of trustees? They clearly were down to do this however they did it. Whether it was legal or not legal, you will litigate that. But they did not want the whole production. They did not want the media there. They were out by what, 803? What are they? It was like pledge, vote out. They did not want public comment. They did not want faculty. They did not want students. They did not want the former president of Miami-Dade College who helped facilitate this transaction in order to secure the future of this institution

for the faculty and the students and our community and have room to grow. They clearly don't want that. So is that what this is about? They just like, this needs to just have like, let's just fight it and see if we can't, you know, like, we're, basically it's like worst case scenario, last step will be subjecting themselves to the scrutiny of their own community, which will include, if the polling is accurate, a majority of Republicans in Miami-Dade who might want the Trump, you know, library, hotel, and casino here, but not like this, not with this kind of terrible deal for the, for the taxpayers. Yeah, and I got a separate. Look, I'm just the lawyer who's saying you did it the wrong way.

And it is important. Like process is important. And they shouldn't be hiding it. But basically what you're saying is right. They must be afraid of doing it in the open because maybe they intuited how unpopular it would be to give away maybe the most valuable asset of the biggest public college in the United States

with a massive minority student population. This is not like a rich elite university. So maybe they wanted to hide what they did. We want to make it so that they have to confront the people whose land they're given away for nothing. And this is really important. I need you and your audience to understand. There is no guarantee the way this is being given that a presidential library will be built there. The only thing is required is that a component of a library museum or conference center be built within five years.

I don't want a hotel with the ticket booth for the presidential library at Moralago to be in downtown Miami. We should get something out of it. I don't have a dog in this fight. Obviously, I want Miami-Dade to have the ability to grow. I think by student population, it's the largest university, or by enrollment. It's like the largest university in the country. It's just an important institution. I want them to have the ability to, you know, grow and prepare for the future.

Barring that, I want them to have the money. I mean, they made a great deal here, as it turns out, buying this parcel for $24 million and having the potential in this market to make a third of a billion dollars from it. Like, if nothing else, that should go to the university and the endowment or whatever, the account that enables the school, the faculty, the students to benefit from it. Isn't that capitalism? Isn't that free market? Billy, listen, but the thing that's so important is for your listeners is don't get fooled again.

You're going to hear there's politicians on that board. And they're saying, oh, it's just a parking lot. Billy's making the point. That piece of land was bought for $24 million. It's worth somewhere between $200 and $350 million. Don't let them fool you. Businesses, capitalist businesses, would land bank? That's a tremendous investment.

Billy's got, you got this, Billy. Why would you make a tremendous investment? Get your college ahead and then give it away for nothing and maybe not even get a library. It makes no sense. our public officials in this county, I'm a native, do this all the time. They take our land and they give it away. Don't let them fool you again.

And they give it away to rich people, to billionaires. They don't give it away to people who really needed it would really benefit from it. It just makes rich people even richer. That's the thing too. Donald Trump's a rich guy. He's constantly reminding us of that. And he's that much more richer, I don't know, as of this year by several multiples, in fact. So buy it, man.

Not to mention he's getting hundreds of millions of dollars. to presumably some sort of foundation specifically for the purpose of building and operating a presidential library. So use some of that money. Benefit this community. Benefit the city. Benefit your constituents. Benefit what is effectively community college students and faculty.

And just before we go, I want to ask you kind of a personal question. You mentioned, you know, this is not Harvard or even in the University of Miami. This is not a rich private institution with a significant endowment and a ton of donors. It does have a lot of successful alumni who do give back and contribute. But beyond that, Marvin Dunn is also not a billionaire or millionaire. He is an author, former educator, a community activist, and you seem very fired up about this. Like, this feels like this is not a gig for you or a money-generating client or job for you, but you seem very passionate about this.

I wanted to ask you kind of about that. I mean, listen, everybody means it costs money to sue and it costs money to be involved in litigation. I don't need to get into your finances or your deal with Dr. Dunn. But this to me feels like something, at least in the pro bono state of mind. Is this like a passion project for you? Yeah, Billy, I don't have any. There's no, this is pro bono. And Richard Broskey, too.

I want to make sure I mention him. He's my co-counsel. And Dr. Dunn, this is what he's doing. He's a brave man. Because there's a lot of people I've talked to a lot of, a lot of affluent lawyers who are afraid to get involved. Now, you know, things are the way they are now. friends of mine who are afraid to be involved

or they won't do it because it's for free we need to step up our judiciary system is still sound and hey remember at the end I'm talking right now but the notice let's just do it the right way they have the power let's do it the right way Anjess Rivera of Rivera Mestre

you can find him at Rivera Mestre.com thanks so much good luck come back and update us sometime soon Thanks Billy Folks what if I told you you, you could give a gift that brings your favorite holiday traditions and memories to life every single day. With Aura Frame, you can. In the Cody family, the holiday tradition isn't just dinner.

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This exclusive Black Friday Cyber Monday deal is their best of the year. So order now before It ends. Support the show by mentioning us at checkout. Terms and conditions apply. Hey friends, Jeremy here. The NBA on Prime is back tonight with another great Emirates NBA Cup doubleheader. The night starts with Pascal Seaccom and the Indiana Pacers meeting Donovan Mitchell and the Cleveland Cavaliers. A matchup that if Tyrese Halliburton was healthy, probably would have been a potential Easter conference finals preview. Instead, you got Donovan Mitchell who's averaged at about 30 a game and the Pacers who were struggling, but those games on Prime are always intense.

And then it's down to Texas as Nikola Yokic in the Denver Nuggets, as Big Honey plays some of the best basketball of his career, which is certainly saying something, get their first look at Kevin Durant and the new look, Houston Rockets. If you're not a prime member, that's not a problem. Just sign up for a 30-day free trial to get started today. Pacers, Cavs, Nuggets, and Rockets. Coverage starts tonight at 6.30 p.m. Eastern, only on Prime.

apply. See amazon.com slash Amazon Prime for details. For generations, Miami has been a haven for those fleeing communist tyranny in South Africa. I mean, if you take a look at what's going on parts of South Africa, look at South Africa, what's going on. Look at South America, what's going on. You know, I'm not going to, we have a G20 meeting in South Africa. South Africa shouldn't even be in the Gs anymore. Because what's happened there is bad. I'm not going.

I told him I'm not going. I'm not going to represent our country there. It shouldn't be there. Take a look at what's happening in different parts of South America. Take a look at what's happening in different parts of the world. What the fuck is he talking about? They're coming all over the place. What the fuck is he talking about?

That's fleeing South Africa? They're fleeing the communism of South Africa to come to Miami. It was in Miami. It was ABF. I used to suffer from ABF. Then I changed my diet. A little CAO pectate. Some exercise, a little CAPECTate.

I got over my ABF. ABF is the America Business Forum. You might remember. Yeah, plenty of peptobismal in that building. It was right across the street here at the FTX arena, forced you to take refuge here in the building, actually, for days on it. because you could not leave was on lockdown. And so this America Business Forum had illustrious

guests from all over the world, including the President of the United States, who really wanted to speak to the South Africans of Miami, who fled communism. I don't even know. I mean, now, at the risk of sounding, like Matthew McConaughey,

at the end of a time to kill, I'm going to say, now imagine it was Biden who said that dumb ass. shit. I mean, now, just imagine that. People would be like, 20th Amendment, 20th Amendment. Just amazing. But that wasn't the

only highlight, Roy, of what was happening across it. Did you not get across the street at all for any of these events? No. Well, that's a shame. That's really a shame. It's also a shame that, like, Triumph the Insul comic dog didn't go over there and cover... Yeah, what was Schmeichael?

What was Robert Schmichael? Seriously. So, one of my favorite things about the pandemic and what it did to Miami as all the Arroskone man bros who were me-toed out of Silicon Valley and wherever else they came from, you know, the tech bros and the Miami coin people and everything coming down here. There was this whole trend, this almost subgenre of Twitter and social media where people who have been in Miami for three days wanted to tell us what Miami is and like

wanted to redefine Miami, really in the consummate, almost Miami hustler way to give him a tip of the hat, to sell more people on coming to Miami, to kind of make the Miami tech hub thing happen. And so a lot of people didn't necessarily come here to Miami because they wanted to contribute to community and help build this place up. But rather, they couldn't buy the government they wanted back in whatever home city, or home state that they came from. So it brought a lot of good with it. It brought a lot of investment with it. It also brought a lot of bad hombres and had a lasting impact on Miamians

that I think by and large has not been positive because people who live here can't afford the houses that they built with their own hands. But one of the more humorous descriptions I thought of Miami comes from Ken Griffin, one of the richest men in the world, the CEO of Citadel who is building a multi-billion dollar like high rise to to move some sort of part of their base of operations. I think their main headquarters is still in like New York and maybe still a bit in Chicago. But you just have to hear him describe a Miami that is like unrecognizable to those of us who have been here. Right. And so if I look at Miami and I look at why Miami is so successful, the focus on education, the focus on public safety. These are safe

streets. We live in a safe city. The focus on community is a city that has great pride in what we've accomplished together and what we will accomplish ahead. I've lived in a failed city state. I lived in Chicago for 30-some years. You can't live in a city awash and violent crime and feel proud to call that place home. So I'm grateful for the leadership in the state of Florida and from this great city of Miami. This is a great place to call home. I mean, I don't necessarily disagree with the last, very last thing that he said. But like, what is, what? Education, safety. When he did say, when he referred to Chicago as like a failed city state, that I recognized. The idea of a failed city state, that spoke to me as Miami. Now, you remember the end of seven. Morgan Freeman said,

the world is a fine place. We're fighting for. And he agreed with the second part. Yeah, that's basically that. Yes. I agree with that. Yes. This is a a cool place to live but like I didn't recognize anything else that he said now a guy like that though to his credit with that kind of money and that kind of power is attempting to will that as well like with just sheer force of personality is like trying to manifest that not just with his words but with like kind of like inspiring other people and he's investing a lot of money down here to be fair but like that's not what miami is now that might be what miami is like in his dreams and what he's attempting to help to build here but that is not in any way recognizable as the

city that we well like i say everybody outside of miami loves to hate it and all of us in miami hate to love it but you'll never believe who else was there roy do you know no who Ponzi Postalita Oh So yes You remember Francis Suarez Ponsi Postalita Does that the job

The underhanded man-child fail son He was there actually conducting some of the interviews And you have to see This humiliating clip Of Miami Mayor

Francis Suarez Being cloned to his face By the third richest man in the world Jeff Bezos Also a Miamian By the way graduated from Palmetto

Senior High School and his first job was working at a local McDonald's. Here he is now. He's done pretty good for himself. Miami should have a AI application that reads your building permit for a new house or a new building, and it should give you a yes or a no in 10 seconds. And if the answer is, and if the answer, and if the answer is no, it should tell you the six things you have to change to get a yes.

and why does it take months and months and months to get a building permit? It doesn't make any sense. He just described the business that I would love to create. Exactly. Bezos is straight up roasting, Francis. Like he might as well be in a kaha-china, this guy, okay? Calling out his incompetence and corruption. And Francis Suarez is he thinks it's hilarious.

He's laughing and he's clapping He's like covering his life Like he's hilarious bro Like how broken and corrupt this city is bro How can I help myself bro? In Miami we are definitely not woke So he doesn't He not

He not only doesn't get the joke He doesn't get that he is the joke And then he has the absolute audacity to say This is the business I'd love to create For serious bro then why haven't you he's been an elected official in the city of miami for 16 years and during that time he's done nothing but exploit his public position for private profit his net worth exploding from

negative one hundred thousand dollars to over 12 million now and during his tenure miami has become a notorious shakedown town a predator city where government officials victimize their own residents and business owners. Remember we had Daniel Figuero on the show, the owner, well, along with his wife Rosa, of sanguiche, a fabulous local restaurant chain or sandwich chain. And he talked about opening a 500 square foot restaurant right across the street and outpost in Bayside here in downtown Miami. It took him like three years just to get that little 500 square foot restaurant open. So if Francis Suarez wanted to do something, other than help himself, where has he been?

How can I help? And then, he says the quiet part out loud. A big building in Miami is a multi-billion dollar enterprise. So you're talking about half a billion, a billion dollars in lending costs. Yes. The daily carrying cost, one day of interest, $200,000 to $400,000 per day. Yes. So every day that it takes, it costs the developer, the ultimate user, $400,000.

dollars yes and that doesn't count the frustration of course not which is which is infinite infinity you see that's nipple baby with the brain of a mosquito oh miss francis mr mayor you're brilliant you were super smart here's the thing roy it's in that four hundred thousand dollars a day that he was talking about that's where people like francis get paid that's where the grifters live and make their living. The real estate lawyers, the architects building code inspectors, the Tos, the primos, the expeditors, the people in charge are all invested in the broken system. So they have no incentive to fix it because it makes them so much money. And honestly, Roy, if you think about it, that waste in corruption is a significant part of the Miami

economy. So if we were to make the government as efficient, as Bezos is suggesting, we'd put the city out of business. Like, we'd put, like, the economy would probably just collapse here, because so many people make money in that waste and in that grifting space there. Yeah. You're absolutely right. Thank you, Roy.

We don't do efficiency well. No, I mean, efficiency doesn't pay. Just like preservation doesn't pay. The idea is to kind of knock the old shit down and put up the new shit because it's in that period of redesigning and creating the plans and hiring architects and hiring land use attorneys and real estate lawyers and lobbyists to go. And then you have to go to the planning zoning appeals board. then you have to go to the city commission, then you have to go to the county commission, then you got to go to Durham, then you got to, you know, and here's another thing I would point out. You notice that Francis Suarez opens by saying like, oh, like, bro, like these big, big buildings, bro,

like that's like a, like a billion dollar, like multi-billion dollar project in a high rise. He's going right into a multi-billion dollar high rise, like luxury condo or, you know, class A office space. You know what he's not talking about? The small businesses where most people, try to make their living in this town. Like I said, a 500 square foot restaurant. Those small business owners who have to spend years that they don't have and hundreds of

thousands of dollars that they don't have. I don't feel so bad for a major duty developer, a billionaire who has to spend $400,000 a day financing a building, that's their business. Some small business owner who just wants to get a permit from the city to open a sandwich shop or to open a store or an art gallery or a little restaurant, whatever it may be. They don't have the time. They don't have the money. They can't grease the wheels the way city officials can shake down wealthier clients.

But what's really f***ed up about it is, of course, it's the rich people and the highest end folks that get away with almost whatever they want to do, whereas the little guy or the little girl gets crushed by this system. Hashtag Because Miami It's one of the few things I probably won't miss

about Francis Suarez but it certainly marks his tenure and to see him being called out to his face by the third richest man in the world

and he just laughs just laughs and he's I know he doesn't get it but he is laughing at all of us and the way that not only took

advantage of us but we let him take advantage of us and there was absolutely no accountability for it whatsoever. Folks, the leaves are turning. The weather's getting a little chillier. That means a football games are more important.

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For me, I cannot deal with spoilers, so I need to see it live, especially on college football Saturdays and NFL Sundays. With Fox 1, you get it all. NASCAR, the MLB postseason, edge of your seat plays, jaw-dropping moments, and that rush like your right there in the action. Sports are meant to be watched live, and you can do that with Fox One. Fox One, we live for live, streaming now. As far as Captain Carr, she loves to, you know, she loves to call me a Latin male. I'm a black male. Yes, I am. And I am non-Hispanic. I was born in this country. That's how I feel. I have a question for you. Sure. So you classify yourself today as a black male.

Yes. applied for the police department? Did you classify yourself as a black male or a white male at the time? I think I put white male. I don't know if, well, I know I put white male, but I don't know if I put Hispanic. No, I know, listen, I know who I am, but it's also, it's also to make, I'm sorry? You put down Hispanic mail, didn't you? Okay. As a man I stand by. When did you have this, you know, coming to, uh, with God moment that, uh, you were black? When did God tell you? When did God Well, I learned that there's people in my family that are mixed and that are black. I see.

Let's just, let's not talk about the degree of blackness. Oh, no, you're blacker than me, that's obvious. And if you know anything about the one drop rule, which started in the 20th century, which is what identifies and defines, how you doing? What a black male is or a Negro, you would know that if you have one drop of black in you, you are considered black. You're probably black, too, Joe. Can we do it, BNA?

No, you're probably black. Nobody sent me here, nor did the city manager. I am my own man. That's right, and you're your own black man, I know. Yes, so now I'm being attacked. Half of my family's Jewish. Probably didn't know that either. Thank you.

You're five minutes. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Ortiz claimed that he was a black. Now I hear Jewish black. I'm afraid maybe next month would be, you know, a black Jewish woman I don't know

That is a classic Miami clip This fucking guy man He's back Your boy Your boy Roy Javier Ortiz

That's who you were hearing The voice of Captain Javier Ortiz This was years ago When he went to a city commission meeting So, Javier Ortiz is known as Miami's most corrupt cop, the most controversial cop, the most notorious cop, for a while the most powerful law enforcement officer, I would say, in the city of Miami, because he was just untouchable. The guy has something like over 50 citizen complaints, 20 use of force incidents, three

suspensions, a termination. He has cost taxpayers in excess of $600,000 in brutality lawsuits. He got promoted twice, apparently, after in a 2014 lieutenant's exam at a 2017 captain's application, he claimed to be a black male, despite the fact that his original paperwork, his original application to the Miami Police Department, accurately identified him as a white Hispanic. And there was an FBI and FDLE investigation in which he was accused by multiple fellow officers for having engaged, this is a quote, engaged in a pattern of abuse and bias against minorities, particularly African-Americans. And he also, of course, joined Ron DeSantis' paramilitary force, the Florida State Guard some years ago. And that's because when he got fired, it was basically bullshit, according to an arbitrator. And he was allowed to come back onto the force.

But with a caveat, there was this settlement, this crazy settlement. Alex DeLucah of the Miami New Times is joining us. She broke the story this past week that Javier Ortiz, who was supposed to retire on November 7th as a result of this settlement, which we'll talk about, is going nowhere. He is planning on sticking around here in Miami and continue to be a police officer of very handsomely paid one at that. Hashtag because Miami. Alex, let's start with this settlement because this is ridiculous. So he gets fired and then goes to arbitration. as is the contract, you know, with the police department.

And the arbitrator says, you can't fire him. You have to hire him back because these were bullshit grounds. Because they didn't fire him, Roy, for any of the abuse or any of the complaints. What did they fire him for, Alex? It was in September 2022. It was an accusation of violating the department's overtime policy that finally did him in. So it was nothing having to do with his interactions with the public, really. And that was one of the first moves that the newly appointed, then a newly appointed chief,

Mani Morales had made when he first took on his role as police chief. So, yeah, it wasn't anything having to do with his interactions with the public, which was the most controversial part of his career with MPD. It was the overtime. So nobody bothered to fire him for cause before. They fire him for cause for this. It goes to arbitration. They say, no, you have to hire him back.

But then the incompetent and I think unethical city attorney's office engages in this like settlement with him for full salary, full benefits, full pension for a certain amount of time. But he doesn't have to work. He doesn't have to show up. He basically stays home and is allowed outside employment on top of that. Am I getting this rightish? Yeah, he was seemingly, he has been seemingly confined to some sort of late night, death. job. He was stripped of his gun. He was made to work directly under the chief. But yeah, I mean, under the settlement, he got to keep his rank as captain. He got to keep the pay that came with it.

He was also awarded like several months of back pay for the time that he was out. So, yeah. So he basically got the Vic Mackie treatment at the end of the Shields run. No, it was a much better deal than that. In fact, originally the former police chief, George Kalina, he got the rubber room treatment. He got the Vic Mackey treatment there because basically Colleen is like, listen, it's too late to fire him for any of these other incidents that he arguably could have or should have been fired for before. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to just relegate him to like a back office. I'm going to pay him. He's going to be under my command. I'm going to be able to discipline him if he screws up again. But he's going to have no power. He's not going to be on the

street engaging with people. We're not going to get hopefully any more of these complaints about him, you know, physically abusing people or violating people's constitutional rights, which he used to do allegedly all the time right across the street at the FTX arena during heat playoff runs and all sorts of crazy shit at Ultra over here. He was running a muck according to these complaints. But what happened was is the new chief comes in and says, oh, I'm going to make an exam, I'm going to fire this guy finally. Listen, if you come for the king, you better not miss. When you miss with a guy like this, he comes back more emboldened and powerful than ever. So they couldn't allow that to happen once his termination got reversed.

So instead they said, listen, we'll just pay you? He doesn't work, dude. I'm sorry, he doesn't work for the city. He sits at home. They're paying him to work at night from home, which means to do little or nothing at all. And during the day, he's allowed to get another job. So all the taxpayers are doing is paying him to basically get another job, I imagine, and work somewhere else. We've invited Javier Ortiz on the show.

He has never accepted any of our invitations. And it turns out maybe the reason why is a clause in this contract. Because this settlement, rather, Alex, it required him. It was a certain number of years, right? And then he had to, it was a compulsory retirement. So what was supposed to happen and what didn't happen and why? He was supposed to retire last week on November 7th. But now he is suing the city.

He filed a lawsuit on November 6th. He's claiming that the city has breached the non-disparagement clause of the settlement agreement. And he's claiming this happened when Commissioner Joe Corroyo made disparaging remarks about him during, I think it was a radio show and called him, quote, unquote, the most corrupt cop in America. And then also apparently city attorney George Weissong called him, quote, unquote, a former, well, almost former police captain. And Ortiz's claiming that these were disparaging remarks that breached the non-disparagement

clause of the agreement. So, Roy, I want to make sure you got this clear that it could very well be because of... That Javier Ortiz can claim that he was defamed, not defamed, but he was disparaged when Joe Corroyo expressed his otherwise constitutional free speech right to call this guy what he said, the most corrupt cop in Miami was a quote? Yeah, what you called him earlier, yeah. Yeah, well, but this is a pretty popular quote. There's articles and headlines and national news stories.

It was an article in Politico years ago. We had Mark Caputo on the program to talk about it about how bad cops stay in power and stay in their jobs. And it was almost entirely about Javier Ortiz. But the point is, is that Joe Corrojo basically, and I can agree or disagree with Joe Corrojo, but he's entitled to his opinion. He's not entitled to his own facts or to lies or defamation. But this is clearly not that. But it may, to Javier Ortiz and his attorney's point, violate the non-disparagement. By the way, I don't think that there should be a non-disparagement in an agreement with a government.

Because what you're doing is you're saying that these elected government public officials cannot speak openly and freely about another, in this case, unelected, but still public official getting six figures a year. He will get six figures a year from the taxpayers of Miami for the rest of his life because of his very handsome. some pension here. And so I think that was a f-up on the part of the city attorney's office, in my opinion. Right. It's not like you're leaving a private corporation, like a media company and going to another media company and you say something about the old media company that you work for. It's not that. Boy, that sounded very personal, Roy. That was like a hyper-specific example there. Are you thinking of anyone or any company in particular? And is there anything you'd like to say? No, I think I'm going to keep that to myself. You learned the

Corroyo, you learn the Javier T's lesson. This is not your little Twitter account, little Billy. It seemed to me that he had that non-disparagement violation in his back pocket and decided to bust that out on the deadline where you're supposed to retire. On the eve of retirement, he busts out this complaint. Alex, all of the allegedly disparaging remarks that he cites in this complaint are all years old, aren't they? Well, yeah, one of them, I think the remark that Corolla allegedly made was 23. And then the remark made by Wysong was more recent in February. So. But the Y Song are, by the way,

no love loss between me and Y Song. I think he's a mob lawyer ghoul. But the reality, I mean, he makes Vicki Mendez look competent. Tricy Vicki. You already know, Tricky Vicky. How can I not have that cart a little, a little more handy? Do you have that one handy? No, I don't. Happy for him. That was not the one I was looking for. That was definitely not the one I was looking for. You know the one I was looking for. You are a vile little man.

That's what I was. That's what I was looking for. So Weissong said, he referred to Ortiz as a, quote, former, well, almost former police captain. That's not disparaging. That is actually not even an opinion. That was 100% factual. This was in February of 25. He was supposed to retire in November of 20.

Like, how is that disparaging? Good question. Thank you, Alex. I live for that kind of validation. So have you talked to Ortiz, to his attorney? Do we know what's next year? Is there been any comment from the city? So they haven't really played ball with us.

I have not heard back from Ortiz's attorney or Ortiz himself. The city also didn't comment for our story. I asked if they could respond to the complaint filed by Ortiz, and they haven't responded. So it's all a big question mark right now. More importantly, here's a fun suggestion. You may want to give a call to Emilio Gonzalez and Eileen Higgins, the two finalists, if you will, the candidates in runoff for the next Miami mayor.

They are presumably going to help hire the next city manager and or police chief. I would be very surprised if both of those people did not resign, in fact, after the runoff election in the city of Miami and December 9th, seeing the writing on the wall. I can't imagine either of these candidates are going to keep any of these old Miami Mafia folks around. See where they stand on Ortiz. I mean, Ortiz was there when Emilio Gonzalez was the city manager. And I would love to know about how Eileen Higgins feels about Javier Ortiz. He's arguably, that man, when he was the FOP president and he was running a muck in this city,

had a higher profile than any of the police chiefs than anybody ever knew in the country. I mean, this guy was everywhere. And so I'm sure that Eileen Higgins and Emilio Gonzalez have a take on this. And I'd love to get them on the record. In fact, if we have them here before the election, I will certainly ask them. And far be it for me to tell you how to do your job. But you did tell me I asked a good question. So I thought I'd offer some.

No, but it's a good suggestion. I mean, especially right now with the runoff election coming up. Yeah. And certainly with the city not commenting and Ortiz and his attorney not commenting, I suspect my bet here. I don't know what draft Kings has the odds at here. I think this guy stays on the job. I think he continues.

I don't even know if this settlement would be null and void, presumably, but he could continue with a scheme like this stay-at-home scheme for years and years and years, continuing to collect a salary, arguably collect a salary or, you know, outside income from another job. Also, I don't even know how that works legally. When you're a police officer, okay, sworn, on duty, paid by the taxpayers, and you have an outside job, is there some kind of liability? you know what I mean on the part of the of the taxpayers or the city like that could be its whole other mess and I don't trust the city attorney as far as I can throw them to ensure that there will not be some kind of future liability on the part of the city as evidenced by the current case which is the city and the taxpayer liable for this curry what's next for you on this is a you know a developing story Alex what do you think well keeping an eye on the court docket I think you have a good suggestion and reaching out to Eileen and Emilio and seeing what they have to say about this whole situation and just the future of their administration.

So, and whether it'll include some of the people who have allowed or helped allow Ortiz to stay on the force as long as he has. So, yeah. Yeah, this is a city of enablers as well. In addition to the, in addition to the corrupt and the complicit, there are the people who have allowed this chicanery to flourish and be the name of the game around here. to Luca. Thank you. Keep up the good work at Miami Newtimes.com. Thank you for having me. We will be off next week for the Thanksgiving holiday. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours, Roy. Thank you. You as well. Thank you very much. And our Miami moment this week, the Imaga influencer from Daily Wire, Matt Walsh, has some choice words for Representative Maria

Elvira Salazar, who, by the way, for your edification as you listen to this, was born, in Miami. Cocanes. Latinos made history just one year ago. One in two Hispanics gave President Trump and the Republican Party a chance for the first time ever. I've been warning it. If the GOP does not deliver, we will lose the Hispanic vote all over the country. In New Jersey and Virginia, Hispanics moved back more than 25 points to the Democratic Party. When we show up, we win, when we forget them, we lose. This is our wake-up call. We need to keep the House of Representatives in the hands of the Republicans.

What do you mean by our? What do you mean by we, Maria? Okay, you're Cuban. Your greatest priority is to destroy our national sovereignty and identity. So there's no we here. You're not American. You clearly don't like this country or identify yourself with it. You want to talk about we?

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