04-25-2012, 03:45 AM
If there was anything even remotely resembling justice, neither Tomas or Raquel Regalado would be holding public office today.
Both of them should have been charged with at least one, and possibly two misdemeanor criminal counts related to their actions in handling the campaign’s financial accounting and reporting during Regalado’s campaign for Mayor of Miami.
But they weren’t. Instead, the Regalado’s were allowed to avoid criminal prosecution and were allowed to get off by paying civil penalties of $5000 each for a case which really did involve a “willful disregard for the law.”
The process by which they were given a free pass reveals one of the ways that Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez-Rundle’s office deals with high profile, politically connected cases involving individuals who Fernandez-Rundle either wants to protect, or who she does political favors for, expecting no doubt some sort of quid pro quo in return.
In this case, there is no question that Katherine Fernandez-Rundle’s intention was to shield the Regalado’s from any threat of criminal prosecution.
The story that follows is based on information discovered in the investigative reports that became available after the case was closed: reports that were collected and provided to the public ONLY by the Crespo-Gram Report.
Other than one story that originally appeared in El Nuevo Herald before the FDLE made their records available, no other news organization has attempted to obtain or publish any kind of story that included information other than what was in the press release issued by the Miami-Dade Ethics Commission.
Yet, in spite of not knowing, or obviously not bothering to learn about the facts of the case, the Miami Herald was quick to publish an editorial attempting to minimize the Regalado’s actions, focusing heavily on trying to excuse what happened by indirectly referencing a series of personal and family problems, including the death of her mother in February of 2008 and the discovery that her husband was having an affair that lead to a divorce later that year that Raquel Regalado interjected as an excuse during her deposition as to why she supposedly didn’t focus on her responsibilities as campaign treasurer. (See pages 17-22 of her deposition.)
Go to Al Crespo to read the full story
Both of them should have been charged with at least one, and possibly two misdemeanor criminal counts related to their actions in handling the campaign’s financial accounting and reporting during Regalado’s campaign for Mayor of Miami.
But they weren’t. Instead, the Regalado’s were allowed to avoid criminal prosecution and were allowed to get off by paying civil penalties of $5000 each for a case which really did involve a “willful disregard for the law.”
The process by which they were given a free pass reveals one of the ways that Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez-Rundle’s office deals with high profile, politically connected cases involving individuals who Fernandez-Rundle either wants to protect, or who she does political favors for, expecting no doubt some sort of quid pro quo in return.
In this case, there is no question that Katherine Fernandez-Rundle’s intention was to shield the Regalado’s from any threat of criminal prosecution.
The story that follows is based on information discovered in the investigative reports that became available after the case was closed: reports that were collected and provided to the public ONLY by the Crespo-Gram Report.
Other than one story that originally appeared in El Nuevo Herald before the FDLE made their records available, no other news organization has attempted to obtain or publish any kind of story that included information other than what was in the press release issued by the Miami-Dade Ethics Commission.
Yet, in spite of not knowing, or obviously not bothering to learn about the facts of the case, the Miami Herald was quick to publish an editorial attempting to minimize the Regalado’s actions, focusing heavily on trying to excuse what happened by indirectly referencing a series of personal and family problems, including the death of her mother in February of 2008 and the discovery that her husband was having an affair that lead to a divorce later that year that Raquel Regalado interjected as an excuse during her deposition as to why she supposedly didn’t focus on her responsibilities as campaign treasurer. (See pages 17-22 of her deposition.)
Go to Al Crespo to read the full story