The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - #BecauseMiami- We've Got the Meats!

Episode Date: January 30, 2026

Because Miami returns to talk about First Amendment violations and Francis Suarez scandals. First, Army National Guard veteran Raquel Pacheco talks about her Constitutional rights being infringed due to Miami Beach mayor Steven Meiner sending a cop to her home because of a social media post he found too mean. And Miami New Times writer Naomi Feinstein talks about the...not one...not two...but THREE scandals that the former mayor of Miami finds himself in. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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catches every lash from inner to outer corner. For panoramic volume with lashes that are so fanned out, eyes appear 1.4 times bigger. See life in panorama because you're worth it. Shop L'Oreal-Paris panorama mascara on Amazon now. I'm recording this for the record. You can report on your own? How can I help you?

Is that your account? I refuse to answer questions without my lawyer present. Like I said, this is freedom of speech. This is America, right? And I agree with you 100%. So you're here to investigate a statement that I allegedly made on Facebook. Am I being charged with the crime? The concerning part and not concerning for the person who's posting it.

Well, we're just trying to prevent somebody else getting agitated or agreeing with the statement. We're not saying it's true or not. That guy who consistently calls for the death of all Palestinians. That can probably incite somebody to do something radical. That's all we're here to talk about. And we wanted to get your side of it. Would you that posted that? I would think to refrain from posting things like that because I can get some.

I appreciate your concern. I appreciate you coming out here. New Year, same old Miami. As Americans are watching on live TV, the federal government ignoring, disregarding, violating, make disappear our First Amendment rights, Second Amendment rights, Fourth Amendment rights, Sixth Amendment rights, probably our Fifth Amendment rights as well. The same thing is happening right here at home because Miami. And Miami of today is the America of tomorrow. I mean, that's been pretty clear this past week, Roy, you remember.

Yeah. I mean, all things Miami, right? Sports, culture, politics. We had a Florida man president, a Miami man secretary of state attending the national championship of college football here in Miami. Jenks. With the Miami Hurricanes playing a fellow born in Boston, but Miami boy and Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza.

This is my first show back on because Miami, but I was here, of course. course, doing, Como Sidesse, sports. Couldn't find the, I did it live, and of course was here to witness Roystradamos.

Call that game ending. I mean, it was the easiest thing to call, man. I mean, come on. I've been watching football for 41 years. That's what happens. It's what happened at the end

of all of our losses this season. But Miami's going to Miami. And what you just saw was cell phone video from Raquel Pacheco, an Army National Guard veteran, former candidate for the Florida State Senate and Miami Beach City Commission on January 12th, she got a visit from Miami Beach police officers because she was reported by Mayor

Stephen Minor for making a mean Facebook comment underneath a post of his. Yes, that is a real thing that happened. And it made for strange bedfellows because it's kind of, you know, politics is a perfect circle, Roy. And so it's brought a lot of people together that you wouldn't expect to be agreeing on an issue. And Stephen Minor, you might remember, is the Miami Beach Mayor who is an accused serial sex pest. He was forced to resign from his government job as an SEC attorney 17 years in. So he was just three years away from a fully vested pension. And he resigned to kill an HR investigation into multiple accusations from multiple women in the SEC's Miami office of sexual harassment, including a college intern and a fellow lawyer in the office.

office. And he also is responsible for the international humiliation when he attempted to shut down the O cinema or local art house cinema for playing a documentary he didn't like that won an Academy Award the month before. This guy just can't help himself. He's also being sued. When I say him, I mean him and the city. So the taxpayers are footing the bill for a First Amendment lawsuit against the city for violating the First Amendment rights of a Jewish peace organization to conduct peaceful demonstrations. I mean, it just, it just, it just. Hashtag because Miami. It's more.

Beach. We're doing all the carts, all the crows. Roy. This is extremely frustrating because obviously the First Amendment is numerous uno in the Bill of Rights and in our hearts, Roy, here at the Because Miami Shepard. show. And what we saw happen here was the police put out a statement. Let's start there. After this incident started to blow up internationally, Raquel Pacheco's video went viral. They wrote on Monday, the Miami Beach Police Department was made aware of social media posts containing potentially inflammatory commentary referencing a Miami Beach elected official in light of recent

national concerns regarding anti-Semitism and out of abundance of caution. The department assessed the post for any potential safety implications as a precautionary. measure intelligence unit detectives conducted a brief. Let's go ahead and stop there. Reason is the key phrase here is that on Monday, the Miami Beach Police Department was made aware of a social media post. So my producing partner, Alfred Spelman and I wanted to know how they were made aware of this social media post. And so we sent in some public records requests that are now about two weeks old. The first request was for all emails that contained the keyword, in quotes, Raquel Pacheco from like a six-day period from about January 6 to 12-ish.

And they came back and they said, we found 56 emails for you. And we'd like to charge you $1,560 for them. Well, they claim that the 56 emails were on average 70 pages each, that they totaled 3,920 pages. So they wanted over $1,500 for it. And in order to proceed with the request a 50% percent. deposit was required. What?

Yes. So that was the first thing that happened. So I decided to narrow the request and I sent a second request saying, you know what, just give me whatever documents that you referred to in your statement saying that on Monday you were made aware. How were you made aware? I was told it was an email. So give me that email.

I'm basically asking for one document. How much is that? So they wrote back, found six emails. Well, that's much fewer. That's a good start. They want $1,480 to go through the $3,742 pages. Is that a discount? $250 per email. The whole thing is ludicrous. So we amended both requests and said, you know what? Don't review 3,000, 4,000 pages. Just give us the first page of each email. Ignore every page thereafter, the rest of the thread, any attachments. So Now, it's only for six emails, basically.

So we'll see what happens there. In the meantime, they are in full-blown panic. It is crisis management mode. There are all hands-on-deck meetings with the whiny cry baby mayor whose jeans are so tight. He's not getting enough oxygen to the brain. So this guy's got the police chief. He's got the city manager, the city attorney. No business of the people of the city of Miami Beach are getting done.

They're just in crisis management mode to try to spare what's left of the miserable international humiliation of a reputation that is Stephen Minor. And they put out a second statement. They're not releasing any public records. They just keep writing more statements. The next one is crazy. And it's from Chief Wayne Jones, who is ordinarily a reasonable man, but this thing reads like the mayor was holding a gun to his head. I was like, hey, police chief, blink twice if you need help. He says in response to recent media inquiries, he doesn't write this, but we're not releasing any public records. But Wayne Jones has the following statement. the real ongoing national and international concerns surrounding anti-Semitic attacks and recent rhetoric that has led to violence against political figures. I don't know what that has to do with

anything. But he says, I directed two of my detectives to initiate a brief voluntary conversation regarding certain inflammatory, potentially insightful false remarks. Now the police chief with no corroboration or investigation is characterizing Raquel Pacheco's remarks as being false all of a sudden. That wasn't the story two days earlier. But he just wanted to make sure there was no immediate threat to the elected official or the broader community that might emerge as a result of the post. The interaction was handled professionally and without incident. I had serious concerns that her remarks could trigger physical action by others at no time did the mayor or any other official direct me to take action. Whoa. Is this some kind of high bullshittery? First of all, stop releasing

statements and release the public records already. You know what we're looking for. They got to come out irregardless, so release them. Whoa, whoa, whoa, do you have the money for that? Call Uncle Dan. Let's get the Metal Arc credit card up in here. I need a public records budget on this show, damn it. I barely have a pizza and parody song budget. All right.

This is ridiculous. So first of all, he characterizes Ms. Pacheco's remarks is false. But yet there appear to be several disingenuous, if not outright false, claims in Chief Wayne Jones's statement. Okay, first he says at no time did the mayor or any other official direct me take action. Dude, we already know that this incident was a direct result of a complaint by the mayor's office to the police department, okay, via an email that the city refuses to release. So to borrow the chief's terminology, minor at the bare minimum, incited this questionable visit

by detectives to Ms. Pacheco. Okay, if you call 911, Roy, to report a suspicious person and that person gets arrested, you didn't order the police to arrest that person, but you call the cops on them. No, I probably would get arrested in that situation. But what I'm saying is that's exactly what happened here. Minor called the cops on Pacheco because of her mean Facebook comment. And then the police chief

sent armed plainclosed detectives in unmarked car to police her speech by telling her, quote, if it was you who posted that, I would think to refrain from posting things like that. So a threat. I mean, I thought it was pretty clear. It was a very

professional demeanor, but it sounded like him policing her speech. Finally, if in fact the police chief, Roy, had serious concerns that her remarks could trigger physical action by others, how does dispatching police to her home dispel that? The detective himself tells her, we're less worried about you than we are about other people. Well, then why go to see her then? It doesn't make any sense. So here to talk to us about it is Raquel Pacheco herself, who I understand is heard from

many a strange figure, including not one, but two gubernatorial candidates in the Republican primary for Florida governor who support her freedom of speech. Say no. And starting with Paul Renner, who was the former speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, who had a very reasonable take. Let's play it. This video of Miami Beach police interrogating a poor woman over a harmless social media post is outrageous. I served for 20 years in the military and in two wars, so this would never happen in our country.

This is a fundamental right of all Americans, free speech. You can disagree with me or anybody else to the top of your lungs. That's your right. And when I'm governor of the free state of Florida, you will have that right. I understand some elected officials don't get it. I do. We will protect it here in Florida. James Fishback is a Groyper adjacent kind of right-wing internet troll.

A grouper? Groyper, not a square Groyper. Oh, yeah. He's been making a lot of news lately with his race baiting rhetoric against opponent Byron Donald's who he's nicknamed Byron. Byron. And he wants this quote, send him back to the ghetto, end quote. There's allegations of grooming. There's multi-state voter registration controversy. A big public blowup on social media with Governor Ronda Sandus advisor, Christina Pasha, is a wild man. and he appeared, yes, we are showing a clip from One American News from Own on Because Miami.

It is the Matt Gates show. What? I don't even know what's happening right now. We are through the looking glass here, people, but this is what I said about strange bedfellows. And James Fishback had this to say. How can a governor vindicate free speech? Well, in this particular case, what I would do as governor is I would use my powers vested under Article 4, Section 7A of the Florida Constitution, and immediately remove the mayor of Miami Beach for dereliction of duty,

for essentially using his office to politically pursue someone who merely disagreed with him on the internet. But I think it's a bigger part of something that you and I, Matt, have talked about for a while, which is Republicans and Democrats not teaming up to fight for higher wages or stopping the great replacement, but teaming up to combat anti-Semitism. Look, we all agree that all forms of religious hatred should be condemned, but that does not give you the right to snatch our, free speech rights in the name of protecting anti-Semitism or defending against it. You're allowed to criticize Israel Netanyahu.

You're allowed to call him a war criminal. We're allowed to do whatever we want in this country. It's called the First Amendment. And as Florida governor, I'll always defend that. Not an unreasonable position. Then he kind of up the ante on the Twitter machine, now known as X, where Fishback wrote, Our founding fathers would have publicly executed Miami Beach mayor, Stephen Minor, for ordering armed men to confront a woman for criticizing.

the government. It might have been a it might have been a little bit of an exaseration or hyperbolic statement. Raquel Pacheco, first and foremost, before we get into all of this craziness, how are you doing? How are you feeling? I know this was a little, you put on a tough face and a tough voice on your video, but how are you feeling now about all this?

Well, first of all, thank you for having me and thank you for highlighting this story. The initial shock has sort of worn off. I'm still dealing with like the actual physical and emotional aspects of having to deal with this. Both my son and I are sort of, we're just on extra. My nervous system is on alert. Let's put it that way. Managing the best I can, trying to get back to life as normal as soon as possible, I guess.

You made a very powerful statement contemporaneously, like in the immediate aftermath of this when you were doing interviews. Do you remember what you said about the First Amendment? I sure do. It still rings true today. I said that it felt like the First Amendment and as I know it died at my door that day. And things aren't getting any better. It seems on a national level.

I don't mean to be glib about it. But your incident is kind of a microcosm of a greater plague in this country that is clearly bringing people from the left of which you ran. I should have mentioned you ran as a Democrat when you ran for office two times and people from the right. James Fishback is, you know, I guess they call it the political horseshoe. but like, I'd call it a circle. But what is sort of that like, though, to hearing from people who, I mean, I don't think it's too presumptuous to say that you would probably never vote for? No, I wouldn't vote for Mr. Fishback.

Mr. Fishback reached out to me. Actually, his aide initially reached out to me, asked if I would have a conversation with him. I wasn't even familiar with him as a candidate. But I agreed because I agreed to talk with everyone. And we had a good exchange of iPhone about, you know, standing as Americans behind first Amendment issues and protections. So on that much we agree. He asked me to go to Tallahassee and do a press conference with him, which I politely declined because after investigating Mr. Fishback's platform, there's nothing there that I can politically, personally, or morally align with. So I politely

declined. But the thing that stands out about this outreach from across the aisle is that this is the one issue that Americans can all rally behind despite party affiliation. So, you know, that's promising. It's a start. I mean, it must be, must provide some solace, if not comfort. It does. It does. It's good to see Americans lay down our differences and come together over this issue. It's like First Amendment. It's number one, you know, we get this right. We're screwed. So I talk on this show a lot about the city of Miami, which is a very different beast than the city of Miami Beach. The government's very different. Obviously, the makeups, you know, City of Miami is one of the largest cities in Florida. And it operates very differently

in the city of Miami Beach, which is a barrier island with approximately 80,000 full-time residents. And you have a very different system of government where the mayor has a vote. All the commissioners run citywide and not as districts like we do in the city of Miami. There are six other people other than the mayor. I'm going to name them because I think it's important. Monica Mateo Salinas, Laura Dominguez, Alex J. Fernandez, Tanya Bott, David Suarez, Joseph Magazine. All of these people have the same mandate as the mayor. They were all elected citywide. Some of them were elected by more votes or a far greater margin. Monica, Mateo Salinas, was won by 20 percent more than Mayor Minor was voted with. And they all have the same

one vote on the commission out of seven. I'm finding this silence of these folks really peculiar and odd. The spinelessness, the cowardice, they are enabling this ongoing misconduct of this mayor, in my opinion. Have you heard on the record from any of these people? Have they spoken out publicly about, you're hearing from statewide candidates for Florida governor. Have you heard from your local, you're a resident in Miami Beach? Have you heard from your local representatives who you probably

voted for some of them? Not one. Not one. I'm in shock actually at the response for, you know, I'm going to say some things today that maybe will not make me any new friends, but I never got into politics or activism to make friends. So I'm just going to be very blunt here. I'm incredible.

blown away by the lack of response from the entire Democratic side of politics on this issue. You know, you mentioned Mr. Fishback and I don't even know this other gentleman, well, Paul, Paul Renner, I wasn't even familiar with his comments. But I'll tell you, the silence from the Democratic side is really quite deafening here. I haven't heard from David Jolly. I haven't heard from Nikki Fried. I haven't heard from one political consultant, not Christian overt, thankfully. I, you know, it's just absolutely definite. It's just, you know, you see this opportunity for the Democratic Party of Florida to come together on an issue that even Republicans can come together on. And what do you hear?

Crickets. You know what I say? The Democrats never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. So while this doesn't shock me, it certainly disappoints me. And I think it was my friend's left of center who once told me, silence. is violence as those of us who have privilege in this country have to use our our platform and our bully pulpits to speak out for people who don't have the ability to amplify their own message or perhaps are afraid to do so. So to hear silence is violence and then to hear, as you put it,

deafening silence from Democrats and from the left on this is absolutely, to borrow a term, deplorable. It is. And it speaks to a much bigger issue that, we have here in Florida. I mean, I've always suspected that we had some organizational issues, but now I'm certain of it. Well, they're systemic. I don't really see how Nikki Fried has a job. I mean, you look at the latest, if you look at the latest statewide voter registrations, I mean, Republicans just continue to widen that gap. I mean, the only person who can be this like wrong and this bad at their job and keep it are like meteorologists. Like, I don't really understand how and even they

I think have a better success rate than Nikki Freed I mean this is just embarrassing already incidentally the show's not called making friends Raquel it's called because Miami for a reason it's because if you close your eyes you can see how many fuchs we give on this program so you've come to the

right place to alienate your political party so let me ask before we go what is next I understand you've lawyered up we're all trying to get some public records here that I in my opinion are clearly being slow walk by the mayor. I think there is a conspiracy to violate Florida statute going on in the city of Miami Beach right now.

And I hope they're looking at a lot of lawsuits. I know I'm ready to go. They don't turn the, and public records are called public records. They don't belong to the mayor. They don't belong to the city manager. They don't belong to the city of Miami Beach. They own nothing. They work for us.

And all of the work product that they generate is our work. product. It is on our time and our dime. I had a Republican lawmaker on late last year on this program who was introducing a bill this legislative session to Florida to make Chapter 119 stronger because he is now experienced for himself how this statute is abused. And I think there is no doubt we are seeing an abuse of that here. I'm sorry. I've got to get off my billy pulpit. But what is next for you and what are you experiencing with your own? I imagine your own public records requests. Right. So we have our own public records requests. You have yours. The Herald has theirs. There's lots of public requests and going, you know, and actively active at the same time. We're going to keep pressing for those. I really, you know, I'm really taken aback by the, like, the absurdity in the city's lack of response here. There hasn't been any discussion about having an open medium, a meeting or trying to discuss this with me. So, you know, at the very least at this point, I think the best they can do is, you know, the, the, the, the, the, the right thing to do be for them to release the documents at no cost and to just have a

completely transparent process and maybe conduct an internal investigation. So we're going to advocate and push for that. Absolutely. In my last email, in fact, I'm writing one right now. You got me all fired up. I'm sitting here literally writing a public records request to the city of Miami Beach. But I specifically said, and I copied everyone in the city. I said with the overwhelming public and media interest on this, you should waive all of the fees associated with these public records requests in the interest of full transparency. When do you think that'll happen, Roy? You know, when hell ofl freezes over, probably.

Probably, probably about right. Raquel Pacheco, thanks so much for being here and good luck to you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Listen up, folks. It's game day, and you already know what that means. The noise, the jerseys, the group chat's going crazy. I'm telling you no game day is complete without the world's number one vodka.

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now that there's lifetime term limits. How can I help? But he's... You can't anymore. He's... But the scandal. The scandal is like Celine Dion's heart and mine. It goes on and on and on.

And now, even in his absence, in his wake, there is a scandal. It started out as Watchgate, and it is a cover story of the Miami New Times. It then moved on to Giftgate, and now it's MeatGate. We're going to follow... We're going to follow the whole journey. If you put garbage in, you're going to get... garbage out. With Naomi Feinstein, staff writer at Miami New Times, friend of the show, back joining us because she's been writing all of these stories. Naomi, let's start at the beginning

here. Francis Suarez, apparently on his way out the door, it's unclear exactly when, gifted to somehow this guy had four, at least four sergeant-at-arms, which is ludicrous. We have covered his abuse of the sergeant-at-arms system ad-nauzum on this show and just the absolute waste of of police time and resources, a taxpayer money, how it's helped to kill morale at the Miami Police Department, which has never been lower. And he gifted them, Roy, four sergeant-at-arms. Rolex watches.

We don't know what model of Rolex watch. We don't know if they're used or they fell off a truck or we don't know what, but four Rolex watches. Like he's a quarterback and he's a guy. giving watches to his offensive line. Hang on. Wait for it, Roy. You know what I'm looking for? Sports.

So, Hey, you found it. And I'm curious. Naomi, do you have any idea what might be like the floor on this? What is the bare minimum that Francis Suarez might have spent out of pocket to gift these luxury items to his, to police officers? Yeah. I mean, obviously, I wish I knew.

the style, if it was primary market, secondary market. But floor, it could be $6,000. It could go all the way up to $100K, depending, again, on the model. If you bought it on the secondary market, as we all know, like, I mean, none of us need to be watched connoisseurs. We've seen the prices, you know, of jewelry, watches,

so have skyrocketed really since the pandemic. So I can't even imagine what the price is. If you're wondering, Roy, where he got this money from, it's because there's, Mayor, you're brilliant. You were super smart. And we'll show those watches didn't come out of the back of a truck. Well, that's what I said. I don't know. We don't know. We could be previously enjoyed. They could, I mean, do they have serial numbers on it? We just don't know. But what we do know is that there is an investigation by Miami Police Internal Affairs into these four officers. Well, three of them. One of the four have retired. Two of them we know have in fact been demoted. The timing seems to be curious, though it may have been.

prior to this internal affairs complaint and an investigation being launched. Naomi, first and foremost, though, let's talk about this IA investigation. Apparently, there may have been some violation of departmental orders or policy as a result of a, whether it's an elected official or whether he was already a private citizen, giving a gift or what could have the appearance of a bribe for some sort of preferential treatment. And what are the rules here that may have been violated? Yeah, there are strict rules about, you know, officers, any employee within department accepting gifts or gratuities because they want to prevent, you know, bribery, you know, corruption or even let's say it, I mean that no one, someone got a gift for a police officer. They met no harm by it.

They didn't know the rules. But they don't want to present the image as though that officer employee is compromised. So and I think, you know, the sheer fact that, you know, if they did get these, if they got these watches, you know, on itself, it doesn't look good, you know, accepting a gift. But the sheer fact that luxury watch at this price, I think supposedly had been rubbing people within the department, you know, the wrong way, the message that it says. Of course. I mean, listen, this has been part of the problem with the morale is that the fish rots from the head down. And Roy, what's been happening is the rank and file police officers

have been sent message that there is just impunity at the top, that there is no accountability for the people in charge of this department. And that's not a good thing. It doesn't make the officers safer on the streets. It doesn't make the public safer. It arguably makes everybody, puts everyone in greater danger and makes the streets and the city less safe. You just have a real message being sent from the chief and assistant chiefs and majors that, you know, you can act with impunity. And they don't even care about the perception of corruption here. Naomi, what do you know about the procedures here. We mentioned one of the Sergeant Arms has retired, so she gets to

sail off into the sunset with her beautiful Rolex wristwatch. But there's three other officers currently employed, two of whom have been demoted, a great personal expense because they're making much less money. I mean, upper five figures, if not lower six figures, less money.

But they're all subject to this internal affairs process. And they can be called in and subjected to discipline. What do we know about this? Yeah, I mean, may I add one thing though. So sorry, real quick. Yeah, two got demoted.

One didn't. So begs the question, you know, why one wasn't, you know, maybe who knows, what could it be. But one other thing that's really interesting is that supposedly there was one additional Sergeant of Arms who allegedly was gifted a watch but declined, you know, given the orders. So that has also been added to the complaint. And so that would be very interesting to see what comes out of that. But yeah, I mean. So there was a fifth, to be clear, there's a fifth sergeant at arms who was offered a Rolex by Francis Suarez, but turned it down, presumably because he knew it was a violation of policy.

Yeah. Oh, wow. I tried to confirm that. I haven't gone any confirmation. I complete dead end. But as we know, they're investigating it. Supposedly they're investigating it. Again, the process is ongoing.

And we might not hear for months. I mean, you're no stranger to knowing how these investigations work. So come on. We might never hear. to see. We may never hear again. This may never come up again. And I think the big question, I think for a lot of people have been, what will be the outcome?

I mean, they're like, I guess Francis is, you know, Scott Free. He's not in office anymore. I guess it's a reputation, more of a reputational thing. Reputation. What, what rep, what reputation? Underhanded man child fails, son. I mean, come on. Naomi, the major in charge of internal affairs is Windsor Lazano.

And Windsor Lazzano is part of a, let's call him a Miami police dynasty. His father, I believe, was a police officer, his father's brother. So Windsor Lazzano's uncle, William Lazzano was also a Miami police officer. And if that name sounds familiar, it's because William Lazzano in January of 1989, shot and killed an unarmed black motorist, Clement Lloyd, who was allegedly fleeing another Miami police officer who was chasing him for an alleged traffic violation.

Lazzano was on foot, investigating an unrelated incident, heard about the situation, and later claimed that the motorcycle veered toward him. He fired at the motorcycle, striking Lloyd in the head and killing him instantly. The motorcycle crashed into an oncoming car, injuring two occupants,

and Lloyd's passenger on the motorcycle at 24, year old named Alan Blanchard died the next day from his injuries. Several black witnesses said that Lazano walked almost to the center of the street, dirty Harry style, with his handgun poised and ready to shoot for several seconds as the motorcycle approached. So stood in the path of the motorcycle and executed the man according to these witnesses. Now, I should say this was January of 89. You remember the Super Bowl? Super Bowl was here at Joe Robbie Stadium. Point on his bagels. I was there. The city burned while the world's press was here covering the Super Bowl in the so-called Lazzano riots.

Lazzano was originally convicted of manslaughter. And then Roy Black, the famed criminal defense attorney who just passed away last year, won an appeal. And in a retrial, he was acquitted and went free. And William Lazzano was the last police officer in Miami-Dade County to ever be charged with an on-duty killing. and so this is the esteemed background that this internal affairs major comes from and Naomi who polices the police am i to believe that windsor lazano the internal affairs major who is supposed to be investigating watchgate

is himself under investigation that brings us the gift gate so yeah he is um Giffgate, it went from Watchgate to Giffgate. And that is a good question to ask, who polices the police? So what is Giffgate now? So this guy is investigating improper, alleged or potential improper gifts made to Miami police officers. And he himself is caught on video that was posted publicly to the internet accepting improper gifts? Yeah. Yeah.

So in week of Watchgate, we've now. entered Giftgate where there was a video of Major Lozano, appearing to receive a luxury gift box from a chef and owner of El Toro loco. Get to know it's a TikTok video. Lozano is wearing his badge. He has his gun on his holster. And he is posing with this gift box and he's giving the guy a hug and opening this box.

There's wine. There's all these meats, you know, like these gourmet, like butcher meat. jackets, there's even a birthday card and a Scotch glass or whiskey glass and he's accepting this gift seemingly accepting this gift in this video and so we wrote this story and actually an interesting snippet of this of this story is who posted the video again is the owner of El Toro loco steakhouse there's a few there's a few locations there's a location from the city of Miami his name is Aldo Espinoza and actually if you go through the same TikTok account and Instagram account that posted this video. They also posted a video, uh, from his birthday

of Lazano and also chief, Manny Morales celebrating their birthday with him. So, so I bring that up because when I reach for comment, Lazano, he told me, thank you for you know for reaching out. Just want to clarify this was just a skit. Um, I had no clue would be posted online. No. Um, but and he says, it's purely promotional. You can even call Aldo. He can explain, which I, did and he said, yep, it was just for promoting his new butcher shop that was opening. And these are one of the gift boxes you could get. But my ears, you know, I still kind of perked up by that because this video was posted back in July. You know, I just reported this in January. So this video has been up for a long time. Seven months. So exactly. So I use that information. I put in the story and

let the reader decide what they want. So the idea being that if Lazzano didn't know that this was going to be posted online, he certainly has known for several months. Exactly. And. And if, If it was, if he understood that it was a, it appeared to be a skit in which he was violating policy, clearly identifiable as a police officer with badge and gun, then he probably should have asked his buddy to take it down so that not only would he not get in trouble, but it wouldn't send the kind of message that we were talking about down the chain of command that you can behave like this in uniform without any kind of accountability. So now the, the Coral Gables Police Department,

is now investigating the head of IA because of course IA can't investigate the head of IA because he's a head of IA for crying out loud. So now this has been kicked over to Carl Gables who are investigating the head of IA for possibly accepting a gift in violation of policy while he investigates other Miami police officers for possibly accepting gifts in violation of policy.

And all of this takes us to meet Gait because then and the gift that keeps on giving, you now dig into El Toro loco and find out some wild shit about the relationship between this so-called Miami Meat Tsar, as you've dubbed him.

What else would you call him? And put it on the pole. I don't know. The Tsar of Meat. I don't know. But this man has a very, very deep relationship between us and our tax dollars.

it seems. What did you learn here, Naomi? As we shift from Giffgate to Beke, I, what stood out to me was I think this was so important is because, you know, I think context matters because we want to know, is there, it could have been a harmless thing, just giving him gift, they're good friends, but also I wanted to know, does this guy have further ties within the community and involved in city business? So as I said, he does actually have a meat distribution company where, you know,

he's given out these meets. And then he also has the state houses, one of which is within the city of Miami. And so in doing this, I got records to show that since December 2023 through December 2025, he's been getting quite a bit of money, $730,000 worth of money because of, yes, wait, I'll get there. And basically meaning this money is basically from District 3 and District 1. and they are for different very, I mean, District 3 under Joe Corroyo was the big spender. He's responsible for 90% of it.

Gebella, you know, District 1, Gabela's office only basically had two purchases. So for clarity, these are, sorry to interrupt, these are, this is what we call discretionary funds. So there's no, there's no bidding, there's no RFP, there's no, these guys can spend this money however they want to spend this money without any kind of accountability other than I guess perhaps, you know, requesting these records and being able to see how they spent them. So they're just writing checks. Three quarters of a million dollars, it seems, and counting. Because even though Joe Corroyo's gone, Miguel Gabela is there, still spending tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars on what? On meat? What are they spending? Yeah. So for District 3, for instance, in District 1 had one,

had one of these giveaways. So Corroio would have a lot of these. holiday distribution events where you would have, you know, turkey giveaways, pork shoulder giveaways, evidently. Al Capone style. I wasn't well-versed that that was a thing. Wait, pork shoulder giveaway? Pork-butt, pork-butt. Yeah, and for holiday distribution events, you know, Turkey makes sense, Thanksgiving.

Three-quarters of a million dollars in pork butt? So give you one example, November 2024, his office paid $156,000 for whole turkeys. uh in this past november again that's for turkey distribution in november 2025 two hundred thousand dollars for whole turkeys but there's also a hundred eleven thousand for some prime pork shoulder so and then these various in our article and if you guys if people take a look at it i have a little breakdown since december 2023 of each month of of of what they were bills you know it's pork shoulder turkey pork shoulder kebara's office had one other person besides a one distribution, meat distribution spending, it was for a staff luncheon for only $448.

The kind of money we're talking about, though, I have to ask the question, not making any accusations, but the kind of money we're talking about, particularly Joe Corrello. And these guys, El Toro Loco, they have a food truck outside here at Bayfront Park, which was the subject of part of the scandal or the controversy in the Bayfront Park Management Trust, where where it was alleged by the former executive director who's now suing the city and the Bayfront Park Management Trust in Joe Corroyo, saying that these were very politically connected individuals to Joe Corroyo, and he allowed them to apparently tap into the city's power supply, so not have to furnish their own generator as they're apparently required to do, perhaps by lease

or contract or whatever, and basically steal, he was alleging power, electricity, and arguably tax dollars from the city. So these people have come up before, but when you're talking about this kind of money, there's always the question of alleged kickbacks. There's always the question of when there's so much money going out and there's no accountability and there's no one else in city government. No, procurement doesn't know about it. City manager doesn't know about it. The city attorney doesn't know about it. Nobody is looking over and approving these contracts.

But where is this money going? Is it all going to Toiki? Is it all going to pork shoulder and pork asshole or whatever, whatever it is? We can say that now? But like, can we follow the money any further here, Naomi? I mean, this is just the beginning. I mean, let's see where it happens. As far as I know, I'm not sure where else the money could lead us.

You know, it's just I got Excel sheets and of Excel sheets full of, you know, these invoices. So it's, I don't know where it can lead. It couldn't lead somewhere else. You know where it leads? It leads me to the conclusion that we are in the wrong line of work. Because these Sergeant Arms make almost $200,000 a year, basically, just like chauffeur, you know, there's no like, you know, no life and limb. It's not really protecting and serving the way rank and file, you know, police officers do.

You basically are a chauffeur for elected officials who nobody recognizes anywhere they go anyway. So there's not exactly like a secret service level of, uh, of threat or anxiety. Uh, and then they get Rolexes apparently. And then, you know, if we, if we sold pork butt or whatever, we'd apparently be making, you know, three quarters of a million dollars. I just like, it all feels like we should just, you know, What do they say? I want either less corruption or more of an opportunity to participate in it because, like,

this is just absolutely nuts. And I want to say, for the record, if Francis Suarez, we're all human beings here. And these cops are human beings. And they did a job for him, by the way, at our taxpayer expense. But nonetheless, if he wants to give them a sweater or he wants to take them to dinner, a nice dinner at Capitol Grill or sunny steakhouse or something to say thank you and farewell, I don't know that I'd have that big of a problem with it. But when you're giving police officers and in apparent violation of policy, luxury gift items that could very easily be seen as some kind of an effort to impact how they might do their jobs towards this person who has been incidentally accused of a great many different things that might require law enforcement action here.

Roy, you know, I was going to apply, I know Miami New Times is looking for a new editor and she, I was going to apply for that job. Well, I think we all know. I'm going to go to the food truck across the street and apply for a job at El Toro Loco. Yeah, I'm going to get into the turkey and pork ass distribution. It's pork butt. Hey, listen. We can say that now.

Yeah, you're right. Naomi Feinstein, read her at Miami Newtimes.com. She's been doing great work, really fascinating stuff that I think is of interest well beyond the borders of Hashtag Because Miami In the meantime Cocainez