On Friday, a Broward County Circuit Court Judge put the kibosh on illegal campaign flyers that were being distributed as a “voter’s guide,” published by a group called A Better Florida For All.  As it turns out, this entity is not political committee duly registered with the State of Florida.  Judge William Haury deemed the flyers to be illegal and immediately halted their distribution, as reported by Buddy Nevins of Browardbeat.com.

In his Order Granting Plaintiff’s Motion for Injunctive Relief, Judge Haury ruled that the flyers “unlawfully interfere with the upcoming November 6, 2018 election by the way of illegal electioneering.”

Fraudulent political flyers have similarly been plaguing North Miami Beach during this election season.

The Miami New Times reported that “a group called Concerned Citizens of N.M.B., an electioneering committee that, according to the Florida Division of Elections, does not exist,” published campaign material claiming that President Obama endorsed mayoral candidate Robert Dempster and commission candidates Paule Villard, Fortuna Smukler, McKenzie Fleurimond and Michael Joseph, in addition to Andrew Gillum for Governor and Bill Nelson for Senator.

According to witnesses, the only North Miami Beach candidate seen distributing these flyers was Paule Villard and members of her campaign workers.  As such, a complaint was filed with the Florida Elections Commission.

Multiple negative mailers were sent to voters from a political committee, Moving NMB Forward, attacking several of the commission candidates, including David Templer, Robert Dempster, Margie Love, Fortuna Smukler and Ketley Joachim.  Although this committee is registered with the state of Florida, the funding of this PAC has been untraceable.

While David Templer has been loudly decrying the Dark Money funding this PAC, does anyone hear as peep out of him or his slate-mate Ray Marin about County Commissioner Sally Heyman’s political committee, Miami-Dade County Working With You PAC, which was also funded by Dark Money?  Of course not!

But, they are perfectly okay with that.

After all, Sally’s on their side!

Hypocrites.

Mayoral candidate Anthony DeFillipo, however, has been attacked by a bigoted mailer allegedly paid for and distributed by “AFSCME People,” the political arm of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, a national union.  AFSCME political director Brian Weeks disavowed any connection to this mailer and stated, “We unequivocally denounce this defamatory and offensive attack.”

Union investigators then traced the source of this mailer to a Hialeah printing company called G-Print, which was paid by Thor Media Group, LLC, which is owned by Hector Roos, a local political consultant.  The union promptly sent both of them cease and desist letters.

Here’s the thing.

While Hector Roos may have allegedly commissioned this mailer, he has no pony in this race.  He doesn’t live in North Miami Beach, nor does he do business in the city.  Although Roos is a friend of commission candidate Michael Joseph (as well as this blogger), there is absolutely no logical reason for him to attack Tony, or especially, use his own money to do so.  Someone had paid for it, though we doubt it was Hector.  The only way to uncover the source of this Dark Money funded mailer, however, is to seek remedy through the courts.

Start popping the corn, because the entertainment is about to begin.

On October 23, 2018, Tony filed a defamation lawsuit against AFSCME, ASFCME People, G-Print, Thor Media Group, LLC, and Hector Roos, seeking damages in excess of $2,000,000.

Contrary to the claims of another mayoral candidate, Robert Dempster, who’s condemning Tony for “suing the labor union that represents your city employees,” a lawsuit against all apparent parties is the only way to get to the bottom of Dark Money.

Then again Robert Dempster’s only concern is for the 98 members of the NMB employees’ union, and not the 44,124 residents of North Miami Beach, so his resentment is understandable, even if it is misplaced.  Dempster is responsible for infecting this nonpartisan race with his radical partisan agenda, a despicable move that is thoroughly unacceptable in North Miami Beach politics.  Then again, he’s only lived in the city for two years so there’s that.

But, we digress.

Even though AFSCME has denied culpability for the defamatory mailer, which Hector Roos allegedly commissioned and paid for through his company, in order to uncover the real source of the Dark Money, Tony has to subpoena the financial records of both the printer and Thor Media.  That’s exactly what he did.

Yesterday, Tony’s attorney Michael Pizzi filed a Notice of Taking Deposition Duces Tecum, requiring Hector Roos to produce the following documents:

1) All communications, including memos, emails and text messages regarding your participation in any mailers or political advertisements of any kind naming or referencing North Miami Beach Commissioner Anthony DeFillipo;
2) All communications, including emails, text messages or communications of any kind from January 2017 to present with the AMERICAN FEDERATION OF STATE, COUNTY AND MUNICIPAL EMPLOYEES; AFSCME PEOPLE; G-PRINT; Michael Joseph; Or Ray Marin;
3) All records reflecting all payments, including invoices and copies of canceled checks for all payments made to G-Print from January, 2017 to present;
4) Any and all communications, including emails or text messages in connection with the design, printing and mailing of the political advertisement attached as Exhibit “A” to Plaintiff’s Complaint;
5) All records of any and all payments made or received in connection with the production and mailing of the political advertisement attached as Exhibit “A” to Plaintiff’s Complaint;
6) All communications, including memos, emails and text messages made or received by you with anyone, discussing or mentioning Anthony DeFillipo or that reference the Political Advertisement attached as Exhibit “A” to Plaintiff’s Complaint;

Well isn’t that interesting?

While Michael Joseph has told VotersOpinion that he had absolutely nothing to do with the mailer, he is a known associate of Mr. Roos and, therefore, cannot be ruled out just yet.  We are, however, of the opinion that Michael is telling the truth.  He has nothing to gain by attacking Tony.

Ray Marin, on the other hand, has everything to gain.  In fact, he has yet to publicly deny any knowledge or consent.

Just saying.

Mr. Pizzi also subpoenaed The Corporate Representative of G Print, requiring production of the following documents:

1) All communications, including memos, emails, and text messages regarding your participation in any mailers or political advertisements of any kind naming or referencing North Miami Beach Commissioner Anthony DeFillipo;
2) All records reflecting all payments, including invoices, emails, and copies of checks for all payment made to G-Print in connection with the printing and mailing of Exhibit “A” to Plaintiff’s Complaint

And because commission candidate Ketley Joachim was also attacked and defamed, she also retained Michael Pizzi, Esq. to file a similar lawsuit on her behalf.

The moral of this story is that dirty campaign tricks will not be tolerated. At least not in North Miami Beach.

“I will not rest until the people who distributed this hate mail and slandered the good name of one of the finest families in North Miami Beach are held accountable,” Michael Pizzi declared.  “And they will be very soon.  This illegal activity has to stop now!”

If you are commissioning, producing and distributing fraudulent electioneering material, you are committing an illegal act and should govern yourself accordingly.

Try it and see what happens.

Stephanie