Ana Alliegro pleads guilty on eve of trial

Curt Anderson, from the AP, covers it here:

Less than a week before trial, a onetime close associate of former U.S. Rep. David Rivera pleaded guilty Tuesday to four charges in a long-running campaign finance investigation that also implicates Rivera.
Attorneys for Ana Alliegro announced in a surprise that she would plead guilty rather than go to trial Monday. Prosecutor Thomas Mulvihill said there was no plea agreement requiring Alliegro to cooperate as a government witness against Rivera.
Her attorney, Richard Klugh, said there was no written deal in place.
"There is no guaranteed benefit for the plea. She's just accepted responsibility," he said.
Rivera, a Republican, has not been charged and has repeatedly denied wrongdoing. Alliegro, 44, was accused of funneling about $80,000 to an unknown Democratic candidate, Justin Sternad, in the 2012 primary for the House seat then held by Rivera. Prosecutors say the goal was to weaken Democrat Joe Garcia, who won anyway and later defeated Rivera in the general election.
Mulvihill said Tuesday for the first time publicly that Rivera was part of the conspiracy when asked for the name by U.S. District Judge Robert Scola. In the past, Rivera was identified only as "co-conspirator A" in court documents.
Rivera did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Tuesday.
Earlier this year, Rivera filed papers to run for his old 26th District House seat again, then suspended his campaign in July. Recently, however, Rivera has been participating in campaign events such as a candidates forum over the weekend, and his name will appear on next Tuesday's GOP primary ballot.
Alliegro, meanwhile, is to be sentenced Sept. 10. The four charges against her each carry potential five-year prison sentences, but she is likely to get far less because she has now pleaded guilty and may cooperate in the ongoing investigation. Sternad also pleaded guilty and was sentenced to seven months in prison.

House Pizzi vs. House Slaton (UPDATED)

In addition to the mass chaos this morning because it's the first day of school, there is going to be quite a show over at Miami Lakes City Hall if Michael Pizzi follows through with his promise to appear as Mayor this morning.  Over the weekend, Ben Kuehne sent the following letter on behalf of former-now current (?) mayor Michael Pizzi:

Alex Rey, Town Manager

Town of Miami Lakes

6601 Main Street

Miami Lakes, FL 33014

reya@miamilakes-fl.gov

Marjorie Tejeda, Town Clerk

Town of Miami Lakes

6601 Main Street

Miami Lakes, FL 33014

tejedam@miamilakes-fl.gov

                             Re:   Mayor Michael Pizzi

                                      Access to Town Hall and Mayoral Office

Dear Manager Rey and Clerk Tejeda:

          In strict accordance with Florida law following Mayor Pizzi’s acquittal on all charges in United States v. Michael Pizzi, U.S.D.C. Case No. 13-Cr-20815-Cooke (S.D. Fla.), Mayor Pizzi has resumed his constitutional duties and responsibilities as the duly elected Mayor of the Town of Miami Lakes to serve the 4-year term to which he was elected in November 2012. His suspension has been automatically lifted as a matter of law as a result of his acquittal.

          Mayor Pizzi appreciates The Town’s assistance in having restored his  mayoral office to him on the evening of August 14, 2014, when he re-entered Town Hall as Mayor immediately following his acquittal. At that time, you also returned his official Town photograph as Mayor to the Town Hall wall, and removed the personal effects of temporary Town Mayor Slaton from Mayor Pizzi’s office. That same evening, Mayor Pizzi was welcomed to Town Hall to resume his official duties and held a series of constituent meetings as Town Mayor.

          I now understand there is some confusion arising from the illegal efforts of the temporary Town Mayor to attempt to exercise official power beyond the temporary term to which he was elected. That is precisely why Mayor Pizzi will be continuing to utilize his mayoral office space effective on Monday, August 18, 2014, at 9 a.m. He will also need the services of an Administrative Assistant, and will require re-issuance of appropriate access credentials.

          Mayor Pizzi also intends to call a Special Council Meeting for the purpose of providing a community update to the citizens and residents of the Town. Please provide suitable dates consistent with public  notification requirements. Thank you for your assistance.

                                                                   Respectfully submitted,

                                                                   S/ Benedict P. Kuehne

                                                                   BENEDICT P. KUEHNE

The Herald covers the City's response:

The town’s response: If he goes into any unauthorized areas including the mayor’s office “he will be deemed a trespasser and subject to arrest.”
“The town of Miami Lakes will not tolerate a breach of the peace or disorderly conduct by Mr. Pizzi or anyone else,” Miami Lakes town attorney Raul Gastesi wrote on Sunday in response to a letter by Pizzi’s attorney Ben Kuehne, sent the day before, about Pizzi’s intentions of returning to office on Monday.
***
Slaton said on Sunday that he hoped Pizzi would change is mind about showing up at town hall.
“I was elected to serve until 2016 and that is exactly what I am going to do,” he said.

Well, who are you rooting for -- House Pizzi or House Slaton?

UPDATE == Chuck Rabin reports on Twitter that Pizzi did indeed show up and met with numerous people behind closed doors.  He wasn't arrested but was told that he wasn't the mayor.  Pizzi said he would instruct his lawyers to take legal action. 

***

 ***
In response, Gastesi said that “there is no confusion.”
“The Mayor of Miami Lakes is Wayne Slaton,” he wrote.
Pizzi called Gastesi’s response “insulting and ridiculous.”
“Mr. Gastesi has never practiced municipal law in his entire life,” he said. “He was appointed by Slaton because of his friendship and political loyalty and for no other reason. Instead of taking an objective position and doing research, Mr. Gastesi is acting as a personal lawyer for Mr. Slaton and leading the city down the wrong path.”
Pizzi said it is his responsibility to Miami Lakes residents for him to go back to work.
“I have no choice,” Pizzi said. “If I was to do anything else I'd be derelict in my duties.”

So are you rooting for House Pizzi or House Slaton?

                                        

Mayor Michael Pizzi acquitted of all counts!

Congrats to Ed Shohat and Ben Keuhne on this big win.

Pizzi jury asking weird questions... (UPDATED -- Pizzi acquitted)

...and Judge Cooke is responding in print.  According to Dave Ovalle who is tweeting about the deliberations, Judge Cooke commented that "a whole generation can't read cursive" so she had to respond in print. She also said that she was "educated by nuns" in regards to her cursive.


On to the actual notes:



1)  The jury wanted "more understanding" about whether count 1 (the conspiracy charge) had to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.  The answer was obviously yes.



2)  The jury also wanted to know whether the entrapment instruction applied to all of the counts.  Again, the answer was yes.



Ovalle says that this leads him to believe that we are in for a split verdict.  I wonder.  This leads me to think that someone is fighting for the defense, but who really knows. 


UPDATE -- Ovalle was wrong -- NOT GUILTY across the board for Pizzi.

Pizzi jury deliberating

Dave Ovalle covers the closings here:

As depicted by the government, Miami Lakes Mayor Michael Pizzi was a greedy politician who “sold his office” for money from undercover FBI agents posing as crooked businessmen needing his influence in government.
“Mr. Pizzi knew this was a corrupt scheme,” federal prosecutor Bob Senior told jurors Tuesday during closing arguments in Pizzi’s corruption trial. “He participated in a corrupt scheme.”
But as told by Pizzi’s defense team, he was nothing more than a honest politician looking to help his community. He supported the bogus businessmen’s plan while being pushed, prodded and ultimately entrapped into accepting only part of the money — though for legitimate reasons.
“It is impossible that Mike Pizzi could have corrupt intent,” defense attorney Ed Shohat said.
***
“What kind of politician demands more money for simply sponsoring a free program that’s ‘good for the city,’ ” Senior told jurors.
But Shohat insisted that the agents, Kesti and lobbyist Richard Candia — Pizzi’s pal who was arrested and convicted as part of the scheme — consistently reinforced the notion that the program was legitimate. Pizzi supported the supposed grant but consistently shrugged off efforts to implicitly ask for money.
“Any good honest politician, trying to get hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not in the seven figures [for his community], would have done the exact same thing,” Shohat said.

Be nice to Dave Ovalle...

...if you are in federal court this morning.  He will be covering the closing arguments in the Pizzi trial for the Herald.  He's used to non-working escalators and bad coffee, so if you run into him, show him the good spots in and around the federal courthouse. Here's his lead-up story:

Lawyers are scheduled to deliver closing arguments Tuesday morning in a Miami federal court, with deliberations to follow.Pizzi’s defense rested Monday after several days of presenting witnesses aimed at explaining away allegations that the politician accepted money four separate times between 2011 and 2013.A guilty verdict could spell the end of a career for the fast-talking, populist-style politician first elected to the Miami Lakes City Council in 2000, then to the mayor’s seat eight years later. An acquittal would be a resounding triumph for Pizzi, who had long insisted he is innocent, set up by questionable FBI tactics and unscrupulous informants.Federal prosecutors say Pizzi took the money in exchange for supporting a phony federal grant application sought by two crooked Chicago businessmen — actually undercover FBI agents working with a lobbyist-turned-informant Michael Kesti.

***
Pizzi’s defense lawyers have painted Candia as a liar looking to lessen his prison sentence.To shoot down the claim, defense lawyers last week called to the stand Jorge Concepcion, a businessman who told jurors he was actually meeting with Pizzi at a house nearby at the time of the alleged Starbucks encounter.On Monday, for their final rebuttal witness, prosecutors put on a phone company engineer who testified that Pizzi’s phone call likely came south of a cellphone tower — near the Starbucks, in the opposite direction of the home where Pizzi purportedly met with Concepcion.

You be the judge.

1.  How much time should a mailman get for throwing away 700 letters because he couldn't get them all delivered?  Paula McMahon of the Sun-Sentinel covers the story of  South Florida mailman Jimmy Lee Peters Jr.  Judge Cohn rightfully sentenced him to probation:

At his sentencing Friday in federal court in Fort Lauderdale, Peters' lawyer said his client stole nothing and simply became "overwhelmed" by the volume of mail that he was expected to deliver during his seven months as a mail carrier."He basically says that it was a very large district that he had to serve and he was just overwhelmed," defense attorney Ruben Garcia told U.S. District Judge James Cohn. "Instead of just taking it back and admitting that he just wasn't up to it, he took it home."Peters didn't open even one envelope and none of the intended recipients reported any losses, officials said.U.S. Postal Service employees reported that they found "several garbage bags full of U.S. mail" at Peters' Miami residence. Other workers later delivered the delayed mail, which was addressed to ZIP codes 33060, 33064, 33013 and 33014, court records show.Garcia told the judge that Peters – whose prior criminal record consisted of two misdemeanor convictions for possession of marijuana and two arrests for driving with a suspended license – had already been punished significantly by being fired from a good job."I've realized how wrong I was for delaying the mail," Peters told the judge. "I am extremely ashamed and remorseful." 

Peters was sentenced to two years of probation and ordered to undergo substance abuse treatment. The judge said he felt that, considering everything, it was a reasonable punishment.

2.   Next up is a wine counterfeiter.  How much time should Rudy Kurniawan receive for selling *a lot* of counterfeit wine to rich wine collectors?  According to Judge Richard Berman in the SDNY, TEN YEARS! Here's the CBS NY story about the (way too long?) sentence:

He said Kurniawan’s victims were wealthy and aware that counterfeit wines were a frequent occurrence in the marketplace.“Nobody died. Nobody lost their savings. Nobody lost their job,” he said. The lawyer said the 2 1/2 years Kurniawan has served in prison was enough penalty, since he had lost everything and been branded a cheat.Okula called the defense lawyer’s comments “quite shocking,” especially when he suggested that Kurniawan should get lenient treatment because he ripped off rich people rather than the poor.“Fraud is fraud,” he said.Kurniawan was a connoisseur of counterfeiting who mastered label making, cork stamping, bottle waxing and recorking to create fake bottles of wine. Federal prosecutors said Kurniawan turned his California home into a wine factory. Restaurants sent him empty wine bottles, then he mixed together cheap wine and rebottled it as vintage wine.He also borrowed money against his collection of fake wines and owes a New York bank several million dollars.Wine consultant Maureen Downey spent hours documenting the deception to help her sniff out future fakes, CBS 2’s Tony Aiello reported in December 2013.“Some of the stuff up there, even the producers say they would not be able to spot it,” Downey said.For example, Kurniawan phonied up two bottles of 1934 Romanee-Conti and sold them for $24,000. A fake double-magnum of 1947 Chateau Petrus was auctioned for $30,000. “He made blends,” Downey said. “He was like a mad scientist.”

I'm not sure the jury who asked for a "big bottle of wine" discussed in the post below would have cared.

3.  How much should a federal judge get if he is convicted of battery on his wife?  According to the AP, federal judge Mark Fuller from the Middle District of Alabama was arrested Saturday night in Atlanta at the Ritz-Carlton:

U.S. District Court Judge Mark Fuller was charged with misdemeanor battery and taken to the Fulton County jail around 2:30 Sunday morning.Fuller, 55, is a judge in the Middle District of Alabama and presided over the 2006 bribery trial of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman and HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy. According to a jail official, the judge has a 9 a.m. Monday court appearance and was expected to remain in jail overnight.Police responded to the Ritz-Carlton Hotel at 181 Peachtree Street at 10:47 p.m. According to Atlanta police spokeswoman Kim Jones, officers spoke to Fuller’s wife, “who stated she was assaulted by her husband.” Fuller’s wife, who was not named by police, was treated by paramedics but refused treatment at a hospital.Fuller was nominated to the bench in 2002 by President George W. Bush and has been a controversial figure in Alabama politics, largely for his role in the Siegelman trial. Siegelman’s family members and supporters claim the former governor’s prosecution was politically motivated and that Fuller should have recused himself for conflicts of interest.

Jury in West Palm Beach asks for "big bottle of wine"

And they also include the LOL and :) on their note....

Gotta love South Florida!