Hello, kids!  Welcome to Sesame Street.  Let’s play a game called “One of These Things is Not Like the Others.”

When I reviewed North Miami Police Officer Jodlyn Antoine’s SIX Notices of Disciplinary Action, I noticed something curious.  One of these things is not like the others!

Let’s see  if you can figure out which ones are the same and which one is different.

The first Notice of Disciplinary Action was dated November 4, 2004, and signed by all of his supervisors and the Chief of Police on that date.  Officer Antoine signed it on November 8, 2004.

Antoine’s second Notice of Disciplinary Action was dated March 8, 2007.  This was signed over the course of a week by his chain of command and the Chief by March 15, 2007.

The third Notice of Disciplinary Action Action, dated June 6, 2007, was signed by all of Antoine’s commanding officers and the Chief on June 11, 2007.  Officer Antoine signed it on June 12, 2007.

The fourth Notice of Disciplinary Action was dated June 26, 2008, signed by his chain of command on the same date, by the Chief the next day on June 27, 2008, and by Officer Antoine on July 1, 2008.

The fifth Notice of Disciplinary Action, dated June 6, 2012, was signed by the chain of command by June 11, 2012, and Officer Antoine signed it on June 14, 2012.

And, finally, Officer Jodlyn Antoine’s sixth Notice of Disciplinary Action was dated July 18, 2014.  It was signed by his commanding officers on July 24, 2014 and by the Chief on September 12, 2014.

Did you figure it out yet?  Can you tell which of those things is not like the others?

If you guessed “Notice of Disciplinary Action Number 6,” you guessed correctly!

Now, pay close attention because here’s where the story gets really twisted.

Officer Jodlyn Antoine’s last Internal Affairs Case No. 2012-02 was initiated on January 24, 2014 under former Police Chief Marc Elias.  Less than two weeks later, Chief Elias resigned and on February 7, 2014, Assistant Chief Leonard Burgess inherited the latest Antoine problem when he was appointed as Acting Chief.  Burgess was then appointed as permanent Chief four months later on June 4, 2014.

According to the IA Case Summary, on March 27, 2014, the State Attorney’s Office agreed “to continue with the criminal investigation” of Officer Antoine, at which time he was “placed on Administrative leave with pay.”

On May 14, 2014, the State Attorney officially closed the criminal investigation against Antoine, noting that he had potentially violated Florida State Statute 849.091 regarding illegal “Pyramid Schemes,” but that this violation “was not part of the State Attorney’s Office review” of the Internal Affairs matter, which was still ongoing.

At that point, Officer Antoine had been on paid Administrative leave for nearly two months.

The Internal Affairs investigation concluded on June 6, 2014, and was turned over to a disposition panel for review.  The panel determined that all seven of the allegations against Officer Antoine were SUSTAINED.

Officer Antoine’s chain of command issued his sixth Notice of Disciplinary Action on July 18, 2014 with a recommendation of TERMINATION.

As you can see, Antoine’s Commander and Major signed this Notice on July 24, 2014.

It appears that Assistant Chief Larry Juriga initialed it but did not date it.

Police Chief Leonard Burgess signed it on September 12, 2014, NEARLY TWO MONTHS AFTER THE DOCUMENT WAS DATED!

WHY?

Meanwhile, as I noted in a previous post, by the time Police Chief Lenny got around to signing off on the Notice of Disciplinary Action, Officer Jodlyn Antoine had been on PAID  Administrative leave and “accruing vacation, holiday and sick time,” for over five and a half months, or a total of one hundred seventy (170) days.

September 12, 2014 was also the date that Chief Lenny got around to finalizing the Last Chance Agreement between the City of North Miami and Officer Jodlyn Antoine, which makes him promise to behave for a whole year.

Meanwhile, even after the Agreement was in place, Antoine continued to sit home and collect a taxpayer financed salary for another three months!

WHY?

Even weirder, attached to the Notice of Disciplinary Action, which was dated July 18, 2014, is a letter dated December 8, 2014 – nearly three months after  the Chief finally signed the Notice – advising Antoine that he agreed to a “30 day (300 hour) disciplinary suspension without pay.”

HOWEVER, of those 300 hours of suspension, only 200 of them would be without pay because 100 of those hours (or one third of his suspension) was to be “fined … from his accrued Annual Leave.”

You know, the Annual Leave he was ALREADY ACCRUING while GETTING PAID to channel surf on his couch for the previous EIGHT AND A HALF MONTHS!

Because Chief Lenny wants you to know all about “progressive discipline.”

Or something.

Team Irony couldn’t help but notice that the Internal Affairs sergeant who did the painstaking legwork to complete this investigation received a harsher discipline than the Officer who committed all the violations.

Because in Chief Lenny’s Sesame Street PD, no good deed goes unpunished.

North Miami residents should be mad as hell about the Police Department’s corruption and wasted tax dollars!

I’m outraged on your behalf, but I’m not a North Miamian.

I’m just a blogger.

And apparently, Chief Lenny’s biggest  problem.

Good!

Stephanie Kienzle
“Spreading the Wealth”