Corrupt Hernandez Calls Miami Herald "Racist" For Menocal Story Coverage

[Unregistered]

From today's Miami Herald:

In response to a seemingly innocuous question during a Tuesday night Hialeah City Council meeting, Mayor Carlos Hernández vehemently defended Police Chief Sergio Velázquez and attacked the Miami Herald, calling the newspaper “racist” and “anti-Cuban” for its coverage of how the police department handled an investigation into a Hialeah police officer arrested by the FBI late last year.

“The Herald’s never been a friend of Hialeah, they’ll never be a friend of Hialeah. They don’t care about our city, they don’t care about our people,” Hernández said during an impassioned, impromptu address that lasted nearly 10 minutes. “It’s a racist newspaper. Anti-Hialeah, anti-Cuban.”

“Be very careful,” he said. “Because I will never let anyone sandbag my officers.”

Addressing a reporter who was covering the meeting, the mayor added: “I’ll challenge your editor anytime she wants to go [on] a Spanish station with me. I’ll put her in her place.”

Hernández was set off by newly elected council member Jesus Tundidor, who asked if the city clerk could provide the council with the internal affairs file of Jesús Menocal, Jr., a Hialeah police sergeant indicted by federal prosecutors for allegedly violating the civil rights of two women. Menocal is accused of detaining the women, one a minor, and subjecting them to sexual abuse. He was fired after his arrest and has pleaded not guilty. His internal affairs file was the basis of a Miami Herald investigation published in November. The Herald obtained the file through public records requests.

Aminda Marqués González, president, publisher and executive editor of the Herald, responded that the mayor’s complaint sounded like “an attempt to divert attention from the city’s lack of accountability.”

“The issue at hand is the behavior of a police officer who under serious allegations of sexual misconduct still managed to thrive in the Hialeah Police Department,” said Marqués González, who is Cuban American and grew up in Hialeah.

The Menocal scandal has led to criticism of Hernández and his hand-picked chief, Velázquez, even in a city where the powerful, long-serving mayor usually gets his way. But the city’s power dynamic may be changing. A November election saw the number of Hernández’s allies on the council diminish after two candidates not on his slate emerged victorious, including Tundidor. Charter amendments backed by Hernández, including one that would increase his already extensive powers as a “strong” mayor, were voted down. And he faced a recall petition, although it failed to gain enough signatures to force a city election.

Menocal’s arrest in December at Hialeah police headquarters drew national attention to the city. But the decorated police sergeant had been under suspicion since 2015. That’s when four women complained to Hialeah police that he had used the power of his badge to stop and sexually violate or pressure them for sex. One of the victims, a 14-year-old girl, said Menocal forced her to perform oral sex. State prosecutors decided there wasn’t enough evidence to charge him.

Even before Menocal was cleared by the state, Velázquez moved him back to the SWAT team and granted him a pay raise, a Herald investigation found. And although the chief ultimately sustained an internal affairs complaint against Menocal in 2016, he did not impose any discipline or punishment.

The FBI arrested Menocal a month after the Herald story was published, following a federal investigation that lasted at least two years. The two victims cited in the federal indictment were among the original victims who complained in 2015.

At the city meeting Tuesday, Hernández insisted that Velázquez handled the case properly and said the city deserved credit for Menocal being charged.

It remains unclear exactly when and how Hialeah referred the Menocal case to the FBI. A Hialeah police spokesman has not answered questions asking for details. And when the Herald put in a public records request to the city asking for communications with the FBI concerning Menocal, it was told there were “no records responsive to your request.”

In contrast, the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office has provided e-mails showing it referred the case to the Department of Justice in 2016.

Velázquez is a longtime ally of Hernández, a former Hialeah police commander who became mayor in 2011. The two men served together on the force. Velázquez became chief in 2012. Last month, the Herald published a story on Velázquez’s checkered record as a police officer, which saw him suspended and even recommended for termination. (A previous mayor, Raúl Martínez, intervened to save his job.) Hernández addressed that article as well at the Tuesday meeting.

“Anybody who questions that chief is a hypocrite,” the mayor said. “This isn’t a guy who came yesterday. Crime is down. We’re a lean, mean machine.”

Hernández also criticized the Herald for requesting his personnel file from his career as a police officer.

“What does my record have to do with anything?” he asked.

“I was very insulted,” Hernández added. “When have you seen the Miami Herald write anything positive about the city of Hialeah? Never.”

Hernández has not responded to interview requests from the Herald in two months.

Both he and Velázquez refused to respond to questions as they left the council chambers, including a query about whether Hialeah police had indeed referred the case to the FBI.

In an interview after the meeting, Tundidor said he intends to pursue how the police department handled Menocal’s case.

“I made my point clear that we need to focus on transparency,” Tundidor said. “We need the council to be fully informed. ... The council has powers we can use that we haven’t in the past and that’s what we’re exercising now.”

[Unregistered]

Note how both Hernández and Velasquez STILL refuse to criticize their bagman Menocal despite the FBI arrest, or express any kind of compassion for the underage victims.
This is the mindset of corrupt thugs.

[Unregistered]

Heads are rolling - 🍿

[Unregistered]

racist against hispanics? how many times have we heard that from the bad guys?
I would have thought the rock could do better than that.

[Unregistered]

just a tactic to avoid answering unwanted questions

[Unregistered]

Those two idiots, Hernandez and Velasquez, continue to embarrass Hialeah in the national news. Now Hernandez is being featured on the Drudge Report.

About halfway down the center column:
https://drudgereport.com/

[Archangel]

Why do Hernandez and Velasquez refuse to answer any questions about Menocal? A council member asks a simple question and Hernandez explodes and says they don't have to answer questions because the paper that reported the story is racist? Does that make any sense?

It is so obvious these two corrupt S0B's are hiding something, and something big. They don't want to do or say anything negative about Menocal because they don't want to piss him off and he talks to the feds. Menocal was the guy who collected their payola and they went to extremes to protect them and continue to do so.

Remember when Castellon was arrested for copying drivers licences? Velasquez had no problem criticising an officer then.
From the Miami Herald:
Hialeah police Sgt. Carl Zogby said Castellon has a lengthy disciplinary history that includes 13 written reprimands and four suspensions. Zogby said Castellon was fired in 2012 but was awarded his job back in 2014 after arbitration.
"He was a problematic employee from the start and his course of conduct has finally resulted in his arrest, which is very regrettable and has brought a day of disgrace to our department," Hialeah Police Chief Sergio Velazquez said.

Yet when it comes to Menocal they refuse to answer the most simple questions or say anything negative at all about him.

Why???

[Unregistered]

They can't say anything about Jessie, negative or positive. If Jessie is bad, then they're incompetent or evil. If Jessie is good, then four completely separate women are active in a conspiracy but Hialeah is still incompetent or evil for not doing what they are sworn to do.

Didn't Sergio have a heart attack a couple years ago?? Why is he still there?? He didn't do anything for the crime stats- crime is down all over the country the economy is doing well. When does Miami Dade Sheriff begin? Can he stop this circus?? Can't the governor stop this circus??? Bring in the FDLE!!!!

[Unregistered]

Why do Hernandez and Velasquez refuse to answer any questions about Menocal? A council member asks a simple question and Hernandez explodes and says they don't have to answer questions because the paper that reported the story is racist? Does that make any sense?

It is so obvious these two corrupt S0B's are hiding something, and something big. They don't want to do or say anything negative about Menocal because they don't want to piss him off and he talks to the feds. Menocal was the guy who collected their payola and they went to extremes to protect them and continue to do so.

Remember when Castellon was arrested for copying drivers licences? Velasquez had no problem criticising an officer then.
From the Miami Herald:
Hialeah police Sgt. Carl Zogby said Castellon has a lengthy disciplinary history that includes 13 written reprimands and four suspensions. Zogby said Castellon was fired in 2012 but was awarded his job back in 2014 after arbitration.
"He was a problematic employee from the start and his course of conduct has finally resulted in his arrest, which is very regrettable and has brought a day of disgrace to our department," Hialeah Police Chief Sergio Velazquez said.

Yet when it comes to Menocal they refuse to answer the most simple questions or say anything negative at all about him.

Why???

Never let it be forgotten...Sergio is the poster child for problematic employees. He got his rank restored in coonsideration for putting up Robaina signs. There's a major crime fighting skill, huh? He's a disease. So is The Rock.

[Unregistered]

Why do Hernandez and Velasquez refuse to answer any questions about Menocal? A council member asks a simple question and Hernandez explodes and says they don't have to answer questions because the paper that reported the story is racist? Does that make any sense?

It is so obvious these two corrupt S0B's are hiding something, and something big. They don't want to do or say anything negative about Menocal because they don't want to piss him off and he talks to the feds. Menocal was the guy who collected their payola and they went to extremes to protect them and continue to do so.

Remember when Castellon was arrested for copying drivers licences? Velasquez had no problem criticising an officer then.
From the Miami Herald:
Hialeah police Sgt. Carl Zogby said Castellon has a lengthy disciplinary history that includes 13 written reprimands and four suspensions. Zogby said Castellon was fired in 2012 but was awarded his job back in 2014 after arbitration.
"He was a problematic employee from the start and his course of conduct has finally resulted in his arrest, which is very regrettable and has brought a day of disgrace to our department," Hialeah Police Chief Sergio Velazquez said.

Yet when it comes to Menocal they refuse to answer the most simple questions or say anything negative at all about him.

Why???

Castellon disgraced HPD but Menocal did not???