NOVEMBER 14, 2016
LYING RUDY KNEW ALL ALONG
NOT ONLY DID MIAMI POLICE CHIEF RUDY LLANES KNOW ABOUT THE PROBLEMS WITH THE SHIPPING CONTAINER WHERE HOMICIDE EVIDENCE WAS DESTROYED, BUT HE WROTE AND RECEIVED MEMOS ABOUT THE PROBLEM STARTING IN 2012
Sometimes you have to wonder what possesses people to do or say the things that they do.
Take Miami Police Chief Rudy Llanes for instance. On October 20th, after I had broken the news that evidence related to an unknown number of murder cases had been destroyed because it had been kept in a rotting shipping container under the I-95 Overpass, the Chief decided that he should make a video acknowledging the destruction and apologizing to the families of the murder victims whose cases might be impacted by the loss of this evidence.
That would probably have worked out for him had he not started his apology by claiming that:
“On September 22nd, I was notified that the structural integrity
of the storage container housing homicide, unclassified death
and suicide evidence had been compromised by environmental
conditions. Upon being made aware of the issue, I ordered an
evaluation of the scope and damage and the potential impact on
the affected cases.”
Instead of coming off as a decisive leader, Llanes’ explanation made it appear that at best he was an incompetent administrator, because this was the kind of problem that could not have occurred overnight, or even over a short period of time, and consequently it was a problem that as Chief, he should have been aware of well before September 22nd of this year.
In fact, in the days that followed my initial stories and Llanes video, I became aware that Llanes not only knew about this problem as far back as July of 2012, but that he, former Miami Police Chief Manny Orosa, Assistant Chief Jorge Gomez along others within the police department hemmed and hawed in their efforts to replace the shipping container in question for almost 4 years while the evidence continued to be eaten by rats,raccoons possums and cockroaches.
Before we get to those documents, it’s important to point out that prior to becoming the Chief of Police, Rudy Llanes was the the Assistant Chief of Administration, and part of his command was the Property Room.
He was promoted to that position by Chief Orosa, shortly after Orosa became Chief in December of 2011.
This means is that everything that occurred to or with the property maintained in the Property Room from December of 2011 to December of 2015, when he was promoted to Chief, was the direct responsibility of Rudy Llanes.
One of those issues – separate from the current issues – but indicative of a long term failure of management within the Miami Police Department, and first made public in the October 14, 2014 issue of Miami New Times, was that steroids related to a case tied to the Major League Baseball steroid scandal involving Biogenesis, Tony Bosch and then Yankee star Alex Rodriquez had disappeared from the Miami Police Department Property Room.
In addition to this theft, drugs, money and guns have repeatedly managed to disappear from inside the Miami Police Department’s Property Room, and in recent years those disappearances were a direct result of the piss poor leadership exhibited by former Chief Manny Orosa and current Chief Rudy Llanes, including the recent disappearance of the 9 Revolvers.
SMOKING GUN NUMBER 1
Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, the evidence that supports my claim that Miami Police Chief Rudy Llanes is a liar who violated his oath of office to serve and protect the citizens of Miami; violated the Miami-Dade County Citizens’ Bill Of Rights by “knowingly furnishing false information on any public matter and in the process violated the public’s trust were contained in hundreds of pages of documents that I was provided by anonymous sources within the police department over the last month, and starts with the following Memorandum that Llanes wrote to then Chief Manny Orosa after an unannounced inspection of the Property Unit took place in July of 2012.
What, if anything that Assistant Chief Roque did in response to his being mentioned in this report was never included in any of the documents, but there was an effort to purchase 2 new shipping containers, which as you will see created a whole new set of issues and problems.
SMOKING GUNS NUMBER 2, 3, 4
You would think that given the description for the justification of the purchase that I’ve highlighted above, that this would have become a high priority issue for the City’s Purchasing Department especially since Chief Manny Orosa signed an affidavit on November 9, 2012, requesting that $33,250.00 from the City of Miami Law Enforcement Trust Fund be used to purchase the containers, thereby releasing the city from having to spend general fund money for this purchase.
Although the purchase request from the Police Department was time stamped September 26th, two different Purchase Requisitions, one dated November 12, 2012, shortly after Orosa’ affidavit, and a 2nd one dated May 16, 2013, seems to have led to a 7 month period when whoever was responsible for purchasing these shipping containers undertook an effort to shop around for what can only be used containers, because while the original costs for 2 containers was $16,500 each, by May, that cost had been reduced to 2 containers costing $4600 each. As with many stories involving the City of Miami, following the money trail will reveal a surprising conclusion later on in this story.
For whatever reason, the containers were NOT purchased.
That failure however, did not stop now retired Assistant Chief Jorge Gomez – better known for the unsavory characters he welcomed into his office and the favors he did like fix traffic tickets and chauffeur the ticket scalper Luis Fernandez around – to write Chief Orosa in December of 2013, and tell him that the containers HAD BEEN PURCHASED and would be delivered and installed in mid January of 2014.
Only Gomez can provide the rationale for claiming that the containers had been purchased, and the result of that lie was that it took until June of 2015, before another purchase request was made by the department to the Purchasing department..
By that time, both City Manager Johnny “The Doormat” Martinez and Orosa were gone, and in their place were City Manager Danny Alfonso and Chief Rudy Llanes.
SMOKING GUNS 5 – 12
While his superiors dithered, down in the Property Room, Sergeant Robert Manana was growing increasingly worried. On May 7, 2015, he sent the following email and photos to fellow officers in the department.
The 1st and 2nd photo are especially important because they show the condition of the floor of the container.
On June 22nd, a new purchase request was sent to the Purchasing Department.
As you can see, the exact same justification language that was used in the 2012 purchase request reappeared in the 2015 request. The one difference was the price. From $16,500 per container, the price had now increased to $17,986.
Among the most incriminating documents that I obtained linking Llanes to having prior knowledge and involvement with these shipping containers is this one dated March 5, 2015, that prompted the above purchase request, which again had been written by Sergeant Marana.
Not only does this Memorandum spell out in specific and plain English the problems of the evidence being either damaged or destroyed, it also shows Llanes choosing to to follow Orosa’s previous decision to use Law Enforcement Trust Fund money as a way to expedite the purchase of what was now clearly a critical purchase, and instead wrote on the memo, “See if we can find $$ in general,” as in General Funds.
At this point Llanes had been Chief for approximately 4 months, and could have very easily shown leadership by either calling or going to City Hall and talking with the City Manager about having this purchase expedited.
HE DIDN’T!
Instead the documents show that the Purchasing Department once again took their time, going so far as to conduct a Marketing Research study that took almost 6 months in an effort to determine whether to do a sole source purchase, or put the containers out for bid.
At the end, only ONE BID was received, and the per unit cost went from the $16,500.00 quoted in 2012 purchase request, to the $17,986.00 quoted in the June 22, 2015 purchase request, to a per unit cost of either $32,850.00, or $37,227.00, which was reduced to $30,041.00 by substituting used containers for the original requirement for NEW containers.
Even after all of this, it took until September before the first container arrived under the I-95 Overpass, and even then things didn’t turn out as they were supposed to, because as you can see from the specifications above, the requirement was for “adjustable steel shelving,” but instead the container came with pressed board shelves – not even weather treated plywood.
And there you have it. After taking 4 years, during which time no one will ever know how much damage was done to the evidence kept in the container, the City of Miami, using general revenue money purchased a used shipping container that failed to comply with the specifications that were agreed to for the price of $30,041.00.
It’s a classic example of how the Regalado administration has failed to look out for the public’s interest during the last 7 years.
Rudy Llanes behavior regarding this matter is just shameful. As both the Assistant Chief of Administration, and then as Chief, he had a responsibility to act on the information that he was provided to deal with this problem in an expeditious manner.
He didn’t.
Instead, on June 8th of this year, Miami City Manager Danny Alfonso, who also bears responsibility for this fiasco, as does the Miami City Commission because the expenditure of the money for the containers required approval by the Commission, chose to keep Llanes on as the Chief for another year, going so far as to state that: “I am confidant that we all agree that Chief Llanes is eminently qualified, respected and admired by many and will continue to do a great job as Chief for the Police Department.”
On November 8th, Eli Gutierrez, the Director of Code Enforcement was given a choice, resign or be fired.
After making his choice, Gutierrez was escorted from the MRC.
I do not know what Gutierrez did, or was believed to have done that resulted being told to resign or be fired, but I am willing to bet that no matter what it was, it did not come remotely close, or have the impact that the behavior of Rudy Llanes had on the destruction of critical evidence in countless murder cases.
I write a lot about the Family and Friends Plan a lot, and there will perhaps be no better opportunity to see it employed than in the next few days.
By rights, Danny Alfonso, the City Manager should call Chief Llanes in and give him the same choice he gave Eli Gutierrez last week.
I say he won’t.
In turn, if he doesn’t, on Thursday, the Miami City Commission should demand that the Manager fire the Chief, or move to fire the City Manager for dereliction of duty, and for a failure to protect the integrity and interests of the citizens of Miami if he refuses.
I say they won’t.
Alfonso is arrogant and believes he can do anything he wants because there is only a year left before Regalado and he leave office, and he’s been betting that the disruption that would be caused by firing him is not something that the Commissioners want to deal with, and in turn the members of the Miami City Commission are for the most part scheming, unprincipled cowards, who when really faced with a crisis, have at every occasion that I have been covering City Hall chosen to turn their back on the citizens of Miami.
This time will be no different!
Instead of firing Llanes, watch, if this issue is even raised as a discussion item during Thursday’s Commission meeting to see who speaks up to praise him, excuse his behavior, or look for any straw in the wind to use as a justification not to behave like principled men and demand that the Chief and the City Manager need to be fired over this.
This is why I continue to say, It’s Miami, Bitches!
