Former police lieutenant who is currently county commissioner hit with corruption charges – Law Officer

MIAMI – Florida prosecutors filed corruption charges last Tuesday against Miami-Dade County Commissioner Joe Martinez. The former police lieutenant surrendered to authorities earlier in the day in response to an arrest warrant, according to reports.

Joe Martinez, 64, who was reportedly considering a run for sheriff, is accused of accepting $15,000 from a store owner in exchange for backing legislation to benefit the business owner and his landlord.

An anonymous complaint sparked the investigation several years ago, but prosecution was delayed due COVID-19, authorities said.

Now Martinez faces one count of unlawful compensation and one count of a conspiracy to commit unlawful compensation. Each crime has an exposure of up to five years in prison.

“Under Florida law, these acts, even if they were solicitations rather than transactions, constitute the felony of unlawful compensation,” State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said during a press conference August 30. “Government officials who use their position and stature for private purposes always undermines the confidence of voters and taxpayers.”

Jorge Negrin owns a business called Extra Supermarket. His landlord is Sergio Delgado. The men were facing several fines for placing too many storage units on their property, the Washington Examiner reported.

Martinez unsuccessfully fought for legislation to ease restrictions on the storage unit, prosecutors said.

During the press briefing, Rundle mentioned a slew of communications between Negrin, Martinez, and Delgado as she outlined the case against the county commissioner. Most notably, Martinez received three payments of $5,000 between late 2016 and early 2017, according to Rundle.

“Martinez and his staff reportedly led Delgado to believe that new container legislation was forthcoming and that it would benefit directly Delgado’s property and his tenants while also relieving Delgado of the existing fines and fees,” she said during the press conference.

Martinez was questioned by the Miami-Dade County Inspector General’s Office. He reportedly denied knowing Delgado and “did not recall the reason” why he received the payments, the prosecutor added. Moreover, he never disclosed the payments as a gift.

Martinez, a former Miami-Dade police lieutenant who served on the department for 17 years, held a seat on the county commission between 2000 and 2012 and then from 2016 to the present, according to Florida Politics.

During the interim years, he unsuccessfully vied for mayor and then for Congress. Florida Politics said Martinez was “widely considered a front-runner for the county’s revived Sheriff job” in 2024.

Martinez’s attorney, Ben Kuehne, said the charges are politically motivated.

“For now, Commissioner Martinez makes clear that he is innocent of any wrongdoing and intends to aggressively work to clear his name,” the lawyer said, WSVN reported.