What could have been a teachable moment for corrupt politicians, ended up confirming yet another clichéd commentary about the justice system in Miami-Dade County.

Working class plebes who get arrested, who can’t afford a decent lawyer, and who aren’t owed political favors, usually end up going to prison.

The privileged few who are wealthy enough, connected enough and, perhaps the right color, rarely pay their debt to society for the crimes they commit.

The criminal case against our favorite Canadian, former North Miami Beach Mayor Myron Joel Rosner, came to an anti-climactic halt when, just five days before his trial was to begin, Ben Kuehne got his client to cop a plea instead of going to trial.

Here’s how the deal went down.

The Close-Out Memo filed by Assistant State Attorney Luis Perez-Medina on February 22, 2016 summarizes the history of this saga.  The “facts” of the case, according to the Memo, are so blatantly fabricated, it’s astounding that anyone believed Myron’s defense, much less the State Attorney for Miami-Dade County.

Kathy Rundle might be the  most corrupt politician in all of South Florida, but she is certainly no dummy.  Because this case was so highly publicized, there was no way to make it go away without at least pretending  to prosecute the defendant.

Rundle had to walk a fine line.  She needed to save face by appearing to uphold the law.  But she also had to placate Myron’s wife, CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE SARAH ZABEL in order not to derail her own upcoming re-election campaign.

Rather than throw the book at Myron, she did the next best thing.

She was able to give Myron the absolute minimum sentence by throwing her own key witness under the bus.

In a cleverly devised plan, Kathy Rundle, aided and abetted no doubt by Myron’s CRIMINAL lawyer Benedict P. Kuehne, used the testimony of witness/victim Scott Martin against him in order to justify the State’s dropping eight of the nine charges charges against Myron.

Thus, a sweetheart of a plea deal was consummated.

According to the Close-Out Memo, Myron claimed that on November 19, 2010, he entered into a contract with North Miami Beach city vendor Martin Outdoor Media to purchase “Happy Holidays” advertising on 20 bus benches throughout the city allegedly  at his own expense.

Absolutely no one in North Miami Beach believed that Myron wished anyone a happy holidays.  Myron is a miserable wretch who never wishes happiness for anyone, much less during the holidays.

He put up those fake “Happy Holidays” bus benches as an excuse to get his face out there in the public eye more than two months before the official start of campaign season.

The Close-Out Memo notes that Myron’s contract for his personal “Happy Holidays” bus bench ads were to run only from December 15, 2010 through January 15, 2011, but instead they “remained in place through February 1, 2011.”

However, as everyone who lives in North Miami Beach knows, those bus benches appeared long before December 15, 2010.

In fact, according to this email sent by North Miami Beach resident, the late Mary Hilton, the first one popped up on November 26, 2010, nearly THREE WEEKS* before the contract went into effect.

And even though the contract was supposed to end on January 15, 2011, Myron’s fake “Happy Holidays” bus bench ads actually remained in place until February 1, 2011, the official start of campaign season, when they were replaced by Myron’s re-election campaign advertising.

Just as I had predicted!

What I didn’t know at the time were the details of the contract regarding those personal bus bench ads because private contracts are not public records.

The Public Corruption Unit investigators, however, were able to subpoena his personal records.  They discovered that Myron personally paid $1,000.00 to Martin Outdoor Media for one month of advertising.

Interestingly, they also discovered that he paid $450.00 from his campaign account to David Davila of R & D Printing and Design, LLC, “the salesman for Outdoor Media,” as payment “for the cost of designing and printing the advertising.”

Footnote number 1 of the Close-Out Memo notes that Myron told Davila “that he made a mistake when he paid the advertising and printing costs with a campaign check,” which he allegedly  replaced with a personal check.

The State Attorney might have swallowed that blatant lie, but believe me, this was no “mistake.”  Myron had absolutely no intention of spending a penny of his own money for anything at all if he didn’t have to.

According to his Campaign Treasurer’s Report, Myron wrote a $450.00 check from his campaign account to R & D Printing and Design on November 18, 2010 for “Printed Material,” the very same day he contracted with Martin Outdoor Media for his fake “Happy Holidays” bus bench advertising scheduled to begin December 15, 2011.

The Close-Out Memo doesn’t state when  Myron allegedly  replaced this check with his personal one, nor does the memo mention whether or not the investigators were provided a copy of Myron’s alleged  personal check.

However, a March 1, 2011 entry on his Campaign Treasurer’s Report reflects an “in-kind” contribution from himself in the amount of $450.00, with the description of “Used Signs, Materials.”  Other than that entry, which is vague enough to begin with, there is absolutely no proof that Myron voided the original check or that funds were deposited back into his campaign account to correct this “mistake.”

In fact, it took Myron over three months (from November 18, 2010 to March 1, 2011) to discover his “mistake” and report this “in-kind” contribution on his Campaign Treasure’s Report.

Obviously, he only did so after I had been hounding him for months about who really paid for those fake “Happy Holidays” bus benches.

Although the ads “contained a disclaimer that the funds were not paid by the Mayor Rosner Campaign,” according to the Close-Out Memo, the investigation revealed that he did try to pass off at least part of the cost as a campaign expense.

The Close-Out Memo notes that Martin Outdoor Media was forced to keep those ads up TWO WEEKS* after the contract expired “because Mr. Rosner demanded it and Mr. Martin was afraid that the Mayor would interfere with Martin Outdoor Media’s existing contract with the city.”

In other words, Scott Martin was terrified of losing his $9,000.00 monthly income from the City of North Miami Beach if he didn’t do what Myron wanted.

Not only did Myron extort *FIVE WEEKS’ WORTH of personal advertising from a city vendor, but he abused his PUBLIC POSITION as Mayor for PERSONAL GAIN.

But, wait.  There’s MORE!

The Close-Out Memo states that Myron then signed a second contract on January 25, 2011 with Martin Outdoor Media “for advertisement on 30 bus benches at a cost of $4,500.00 per month” for the period of February 15, 2011 through March 15, 2011.

Even though this second contract was supposed to be for only one month of advertising, the Close-Out Memo states that Rosner “demanded that advertisement go up before the contract date and remain up until the date of election, which was on May 3, 2011.”

Thus, Myron was able to strong-arm a city vendor into extending a one month contract to three months at no extra charge.

Even so, that contract wasn’t worth the paper it was printed on because Myron had no intention of paying Martin Outdoor Media a damn dime!

Myron never even attempted to pay Martin for the campaign bus bench advertising until I busted him on April 12, 2011!

On that date, I discovered that Myron reported an “in-kind” donation on February 1, 2011 from Martin Outdoor Media for $500.00 worth of “Outdoor Advertising.”

Myron never planned to give Martin any additional money, and especially not the $4,500.00 check that magically appeared once I nailed him, as payment for the second contract that he he also magically produced once he found out he was being investigated.

According to the completely fictional story concocted by Myron and Ben Kuehne, which Kathy Rundle was only too willing to “believe,” Myron insisted that he gave Scott Martin the $4,500.00 check in January, but instructed him not to cash the check until Martin Outdoor Media donated $4,500.00 to Myron’s political action committee in exchange.

The TRUTH is that Myron didn’t give Martin the check until I busted him on April 12, 2011, and then predated it for January 25, 2011.

Myron then obviously ordered Martin to lie for him about the date he actually received the check.  Scott Martin had no choice but to go along with that story out of fear of retaliation by Myron.

Footnote number 2 of the Close-Out memo states that Scott Martin didn’t deposit the check until April 13, 2011 (“coincidentally,” the day after I busted Myron).

Fortunately, Mr. Martin never did donate to Myron’s PAC, as Myron had demanded.  Even though he only received $4,500.00 for over $20,000.00 worth of advertising, at least he didn’t get totally ripped off.  It could have been worse.

But, wait.  There’s MORE!

The unbelievably ridiculous excuse that the State Attorney’s Office used to spare Myron from receiving the full punishment that he so richly deserves was described in footnote number 3, which reads:

“Part of the reason the State agreed to the plea was that Mr. Scott Martin gave two disparate statements to detectives.  Mr. Martin indicated that he was not truthful in his first statement because he had been in contact with Mr. Rosner and and feared losing his contract with the city if he told the truth.  Once Mayor Rosner lost his reelection bid, Mr. Martin felt safe in coming forward since Rosner could no longer have an impact of his city contract.”

WAIT, WHAT?

The State Attorney’s key witness handed her all the evidence she needed to prove that Myron had abused his official position in order to intimidate a city vendor!

And yet, Kathy Rundle used Mr. Martin’s fear of Myron to somehow contrive a “reason“ to grant Myron a plea deal!

SERIOUSLY?

Scott Martin’s own statement to investigators further proves that Myron tampered with a State witness during the investigation.

If that weren’t bad enough, Mr. Martin had already testified that Myron demanded that the bus bench advertising remain in place for at least two months longer than the time period called for by the contract.

In addition, as the Close-Out Memo specifically notes that when Martin tried to collect for the additional advertising, Myron “told Martin that he was doing a great job with the city contract.  Mr. Martin interpreted that comment as a threat to cancel his contract with the city if he did not agree to the Mayor’s demands.”

Could Myron’s bullying, intimidation and EXTORTION be any more blatant?

And, yet, despite all the evidence that Myron lied, cheated, stole, bullied, intimidated, and extorted a city vendor into giving him free services, Myron’s only punishment was in essence a slap on the wrist.

The Plea Agreement is a complete joke.

Myron agreed to “plead guilty to one (1) felony count of Unlawful Compensation/Reward for Official Behavior,” for which the agreement notes that if Myron had gone to trial and been found guilty of this one charge, “he would face a maximum sentence of fifteen (15) years in prison.”

One can only imagine the potential sentence if Myron had been found guilty of the three other felonies and five misdemeanors that State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle agreed to drop, despite the irrefutable proof that he was guilty on all counts.

It’s painfully obvious that if Myron had not been married to CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE SARAH ZABEL, he’d be serving time in prison right now instead of an ambiguous probation sentence of anywhere from SIX MONTHS (yes, you read that right – keep reading!) to three years if he’s a good boy.

Paragraph 7 of the Plea Agreement explains that Myron agrees to “be sentenced to three (3) year’s probation,” which can be terminated “at the conclusion of two (2) years” if Myron “has satisfied all conditions and is in compliance with all terms of probation.”

But that’s not all!

For the low price of $3,000.00 in costs, the court accepted his guilty plea and agreed to withhold adjudication.

Which means “if the court withholds the adjudication of guilt  the court has not convicted you.”

WAIT, WHAT?

The former (and ousted) Mayor of North Miami Beach got away with lying, cheating, stealing, bullying, intimidation and extortion, was arrested for four felonies and five misdemeanors, admitted to being guilty of committing a 2nd degree felony, agreed to probation, and yet somehow, the court did not convict him?

Well, screw that!

In the Court of Public (Voters) Opinion, Myron is – and will always be – a CONVICTED FELON!

So, there’s that!

To further sweeten the deal for the CONVICTED FELON-slash-husband of CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE SARAH ZABEL, Kathy Rundle agreed to shorten Myron’s probation to SIX (6) MONTHS by converting his probation to “an administrative probation,” which means he no longer reports to a probation officer, if he doesn’t violate any of the terms.

Oh, boy, you know what that means?  In six months, Myron will be out in public unsupervised!

WARNING TO NMB RESIDENTS:  Keep your kids and small pets in your sight at all times.

The terms of the Plea Agreement are such that Myron agrees not to:

• File any motions to “mitigate or terminate” his sentence
• Run for office
• File any other motions “with respect to this agreement” without Kathy’s permission.

Can you imagine Myron having to refrain from filing a complaint or running for office?  It’s gonna kill him!

Myron also has to comply with the rules of probation “pursuant to F.S. 948.03,” which requires him to:

• Report to his probation supervisor
• Allow his supervisor to visit him
• Have a job
• Remain in a specified place
• Live without violating any law
• Make reparation or restitution
• Pay for any debts owed to any detention facilities
• Support his dependents
• Pay for any debts owed to the state
• Pay any application fees, attorney’s fees and costs
• Not associate with other criminals
• Submit to random drug testing

Myron will be allowed, however, “to travel for family purposes throughout the United States and Canada” as long as his probation officer knows where he is and how to contact him.

For obvious reasons, Katherine Fernandez Rundle rarely prosecutes elected officials.  She cannot afford to make enemies among the political elite if she wants to stay in office herself.

As we also know by now, it’s nearly impossible for the public to get justice when politicians abuse their power to steal from the public coffers for personal gain.

Myron will suffer almost no consequences for his illegal actions, despite all the damning evidence that led to his arrest for four felonies and five misdemeanors.

His plea deal and bogus “sentence” was the culmination of a three and a half year battle to hold him accountable for the crimes he committed against the People of the State of Florida.

And as usual, We the People got screwed again.

Stephanie Kienzle
“Spreading the Wealth”