Jurors found former Miami-Dade County Commissioner Joe Martinez guilty of two felony corruption charges Thursday after a trial that lasted a little more than a week.
Martinez was facing charges of conspiracy and unlawful compensation after authorities accused him of taking $15,000 from a supermarket owner and his landlord in a failed effort to get a county ordinance changed to clear up code enforcement issues.
The verdict came in just after 5 p.m., following a few hours of deliberation. The former elected official and police officer now faces up to 20 years in prison.
A relative of Martinez wailed as the verdict came in.
During closing arguments, prosecutors said the fact that the money stopped coming in as soon as the ordinance failed to pass shows that it was a quid-pro-quo. Defense attorneys have argued that it was a private transaction with someone the former commissioner has known for years.
“The reason why the money stops is because the deal fell through,” prosecutor Tim VanderGiesen said. “The legislation didn’t pass so (there was) no reason why any more money was needed.”
VanderGiesen argued that “a public official can’t shake people down to benefit themselves with their public jobs.”
Martinez’s attorney, Ben Kuehne, said there was “no evidence that Joe Martinez was desperate for money, couldn’t pay his bills, was behind on his mortgage, none of that.”
“Whether it was when he is in office or out, a retired law enforcement officer or private citizen, he was always looking to help everyone else,” Kuehne said.
Following his conviction on both charges, Martinez is now scheduled to have a Dec. 20 pre-sentencing hearing.
Martinez and his attorneys plan to appeal.
“Look, everybody here, my family, they’ve been with me every single day, right? And it hurts,” an emotional Martinez said after the verdict. “And you ask every one of my kids and they’re still proud.”
In a statement following the verdict, Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle referenced Martinez’s previous accusations that he was politically targeted in 2022 as a then-potential — and later unsuccessful — Republican candidate for sheriff as she hailed the jury’s decision.
“In every public corruption prosecution, an attempt is made to belittle the evidence by claiming that politics, not the proofs, are the source of the criminal charges,” she said in part. “With the guilty verdict against former County Commissioner Joe Martinez, (six) Miami-Dade County citizens weighed the evidence, heard all the testimony, and decided that using one’s elected position for a financial benefit will not be tolerated in this community.”
Editor’s note: An original version of Fernandez Rundle’s statement mistakenly referenced 12 jurors and was later corrected. Six jurors rendered the verdict.
