After a five-year investigation followed by three years of court proceedings, former Miami-Dade Commissioner Joe Martinez will be sentenced next month for corruption charges on which he was convicted last year.
He was expected to be sentenced Thursday, but Judge Miguel de la O delayed it until Sept. 15, three days before Martinez’s 68th birthday.
De la O indicated that he was inclined to hand down a sentence lighter than the prosecution sought, but advised Martinez to nevertheless temper his expectations.
“If this is not a case where I’m not able to (be lenient),” he said, “then I’m not sure there are many cases (where I could do so).”
Jurors found Martinez, a former county police lieutenant who won five terms on the County Commission and served twice as its Chair, guilty in November on felony charges of improper compensation and conspiracy to commit the crime.
The first is punishable by up to 15 years in prison. The second carries a five-year sentence.
During the trial, Miami-Dade Assistant State Attorney Tim VanderGiesen laid out a somewhat complex case involving $15,000 Martinez received from supermarket owner Jorge Negrin in 2016 and 2017 in exchange for filing legislation to end fines Negrin and his landlord incurred over storage containers.
Martinez’s Office placed the legislation on the County Commission’s agenda in August 2017, but quickly withdrew it. Prosecutors argued that under Florida law, only intent must be proven, and evidence showed Martinez’s motivation was financial, with well-timed payments and phone calls to Negrin supporting that claim.
VanderGiesen also described how Martinez, while helping Negrin, sought a bridge loan from Centurion Securities owner Ed Heflin, his then-boss, whom he also helped to secure a $16 million Water and Sewer Department contract that could have netted Martinez up to $100,000.
Though he ultimately wasn’t paid and recused himself from a final vote after the State Attorney’s Office opened a probe, the prosecution pointed to these actions as further evidence of corrupt intent.
On Thursday, Martinez, through his lawyer Benedict Kuehne, sought leniency, noting Martinez’s otherwise clean record and decorated law enforcement service as evidence of his honorable character.
“This factor is so unique to this very individual, this defendant, that it warrants a departure (from standard sentencing guidelines),” Kuehne said. “There is no person like Joe Martinez who has come before this court.”
Kuehne stressed that his client had expressed remorse for not properly reporting the payments he received. He asked that Martinez be sentenced to no prison time, with community service and other public commitments instead.
Assistant State Attorney William Gonzalez argued that despite Kuehne’s assertion to the contrary, Martinez did not exhibit remorse for the crimes of which he was convicted. As such, he said, the state could not support a reduced sentence.
“You can’t have remorse for getting caught. You have to have true remorse,” Gonzalez said.
More than a dozen people, including Miami-Dade Officer of Policy and Budget Chief Jennifer Moon and several current and former police officers, attested to his character and advocated for a merciful sentence.
Martinez’s family spoke too, as did his cardiologist, who attested to the former Commissioner’s heart condition that led to a cardiac arrest incident in 2017.
“My dad is no threat to the community,” Martinez’s daughter Joana said. “I need him to be around. … He makes people’s lives better.”
His daughter Olga pleaded, “I’m begging you, please don’t take my dad away.”
Martinez’s wife, Ana, spoke of how he dedicated “the majority of his adult life” to serving the public with honor, distinction and heroism.
“If your life is in danger, he will gladly risk his life to save yours,” she said. “I see it everywhere we go.”
Miami-Dade Commissioner Keon Hardemon, a Democrat and lawyer, said Martinez, a Republican, “deserves to walk out of this courtroom with his family.”
“I’m here because I know what I know about Joe Martinez,” Hardemon said. “He deserves to be outside these walls, still punished for the crime he was convicted of, but he should not be caged.”
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