In Part 1 and Part 2 of this miniseries, we told you about North Miami Beach mayor Michael Joseph’s attempts to get rid of the City Manager that he did not want to hire, despite the fact that all six of his colleagues disagreed with him.
When Michael doesn’t get his way, he makes sure everyone knows it. In this case, he is going out of his way to snub Darvin Williams completely, and have absolutely no contact with him, either in person, on the phone, or by email.
At the same time Michael is pretending that the City Manager doesn’t exist, he’s desperately trying to find “dirt” on him in an attempt to publicly embarrass him and force him to resign.
Unfortunately for Michael, anyone who falsely accuses Darvin Williams of wrongdoing, are the ones who have something to hide.
Michael Joseph himself, for example, is the one who should be concerned about a possible indictment coming down the pike for his alleged money laundering scandal and criminal involvement with EX-Congresswoman Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, who is awaiting felony trial. If there is truly any justice in this world, Michael Joseph should end up behind bars for a very long time.
Then there are the mixed bag of public officials and employees with less than stellar records, who have come out of the woodwork to file frivolous complaints and lawsuits against Darvin Williams, completely ignoring their own crimes, misdemeanors, or at the very least, lapses in judgment.
Take Opa-locka’s Parks Director Zonya Ray, who refused Mr. Williams’ offer to resign in lieu of getting fired, only to find herself facing criminal charges for leaving a kid in her city van overnight.
Opa-locka’s Vice Mayor Natasha Ervin filed a lawsuit against Mr. Williams two years after he filed a Whistleblower Complaint against her and other city officials because she’s running for re-election and wants to “clear her name” all of a sudden. Unfortunately for her, she’s accusing Mr. Williams of “defamation” because he told the truth about her unethical (and possibly illegal) actions as a public official.
Then there are the North Miami Beach employees, Kerlyne McHenry, and the now-fired Frandley Defile and Marline Monestime, who filed complaints accusing Darvin Williams, a black man, of discrimination because they are … also black.
Folks, you can’t make this stuff up.
What’s not funny, though, is the nasty saga of the current Opa-locka Chief of Police, Robin Starks, who allegedly “filed a whistleblower complaint against Williams and Police Chief Kenneth Ottley in September 2024,” according to the Miami Times hit piece article about North Miami Beach City Manager Darvin Williams.
In her alleged whistleblower complaint, she claimed that Williams and Ottley requested that she “improperly target individuals for personal reasons,” and also that they “violated the city charter and usurped commission direction by misusing city funds when retaining lawyers without proper approval, and improperly interfered in police investigations.”
In his defense, Mr. Williams told the Miami Times, “I am aware of the allegations made against me and police chief Ottley, and I want to emphasize that these claims are entirely baseless. My actions as city manager have always been rooted in upholding the best interests of Opa-locka, ensuring transparency and fairness in all decisions. Any accusations of wrongful interference or personal motivations behind disciplinary actions are simply untrue.”
A week later, Robin Starks also told the Miami Times that she was demoted for seeking “Whistleblower protection.”
In a September 24, 2024 article, the Miami Times reported, “On Sept. 20, two days after Starks sought Whistleblower protection, Ottley sent an email to the police department and city leaders announcing that Starks had been reassigned to the city’s Compliance Department. Her complaint had accused Williams and Ottley of malfeasance and misconduct.”
Starks also allegedly sent “a letter to the city commission, the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and Public Trust, State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle and Florida Chief Inspector General Melinda Miguel,” claiming that Williams and Ottley “violated the city charter and usurped commission direction by misusing city funds when retaining lawyers without proper approval, and improperly interfered in police investigations.”
We contacted Darvin Williams to ask if he had a copy of alleged “whistleblower complaint” filed by Robin Starks, and he said he never saw it. “I was not allowed by legal to participate in responding to the allegations. I was never interviewed in order to defend the City. It is my understanding that a settlement was being discussed internally.”
We have since made a public records request with the Miami-Dade Ethics Commission for a copy of the letter Starks claims she sent, but we do not expect to receive a response until at least next week. If we do receive the requested document, we will post it immediately.
As an aside, we’re a tad perturbed that, unlike VotersOpinion, so-called news websites like the Miami Times never seem to post a link the public records they write about. This oversight makes it that much tougher for us to confirm whether or not those records actually exist.
Just saying.
In addition to the alleged “whistleblower complaint” filed by Robin Starks against her bosses in Opa-locka, she has also left a trail of lawsuits against two of her former employers where she also worked as a police officer.
On March 26, 2014, Sgt. Starks was one of 98 law enforcement officers and firefighters who filed a class action lawsuit against the City of Miami. On August 4, 2017, Sgt. Starks filed an Individualized Complaint, after the Judge issued an Amended Order on Motion to Dismiss. Several other plaintiffs in this lawsuit did the same.
According to the Case Docket, the litigation went on for six years, during which time the Judge issued a Final Order of Dismissal with Prejudice for Defendant City of Miami on June 18, 2018. The Defendant then filed a Notice of Appeal of a Non-Final Order on July 10, 2018 because the lower court ordered that they were not entitled to “sovereign immunity.” The Third District Court of Appeal, however, issued its Mandate on October 4, 2019 and ruled in favor of the Defendant and reversed the lower Court’s ruling.
As fascinating a read as this was, we admit it’s all very confusing. We can tell you that the case involved retirement and pension issues, and it does appear that in the end the plaintiffs lost.
But, we digress.
On October 10, 2023, Robin Starks filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Miami Gardens, claiming to be a “whistleblower.”
Her complaint was filed in the US District Court, Southern District of Florida. A year later on October 15, 2024, the Court entered an Order to Remand and sent the case back to state court stating, “No federal claims were asserted in the Second Amended Complaint.”
It does not appear that Robin Starks re-filed her lawsuit in state court, the Eleventh Judicial Circuit of Florida, because there is no record of such a case on the Civil Court’s Online System at all.
We assume she gave up, but we cannot say for sure. For all we know, this case went the way of her alleged “whistleblower complaint” against her Opa-locka bosses, Darvin Williams and Kenneth Ottley.
What we do know, however, is that on August 8, 2025, we received an unsolicited, anonymous email “on behalf of White police officers of the Opa-locka Police Department,” and asking us to “shine a light on this corruption and racism against us.”
At the time, this blogger was contemplating the retirement of VotersOpinion.com for several reasons, not the least of which was the rampant corruption that was escalating in North Miami Beach despite our best efforts. Even dirt diggers have a limit to their frustration at not being able to have their complaints taken seriously. We felt it was time to hang it up and enjoy life in the corruption-free Town of Davie.
Nevertheless, we filed away this tip just in case we’d need it one day.
As fate would have it, today is that day!
The letter was addressed to this blogger, and it started out by saying, “After over a decade of its police department being treated like second-class citizens, the City of Opa-locka finally hired a City Manager who gave a damn about us—the men and women in uniform. His name is Darvin Williams. And for once, we felt heard.”
We have to admit that we had no idea who Darvin Williams was at the time, but it all makes perfect sense now.
The letter continued:
“Mr. Williams met with us—group talks, one-on-ones—and made us a deal: “I’ll get you what you need to be great cops. You make Opa-locka one of the safest cities in Florida.”
And he delivered. Within 90 days:
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- We had a new police chief.
- A brand-new fleet of vehicles was ordered.
- He inked a deal with the PBA giving us a $10K raise across the board!
By year’s end, we had a new $2.1 million police station under construction—with $1 million of that coming from state grants. Yep, Mr. Williams went to Tallahassee and came back with the money we needed. The man put in the work.
And we did too. By Spring 2023, crime dropped to its lowest point in a decade. We went six months without a major crime. SIX MONTHS. In Opa-locka! That’s unheard of.
But then came the poison: Robin Starks.”
What really caught our attention was the very next paragraph in the letter:
“Mr. Williams, from what I’ve heard, was either tricked or forced to hire her by Mayor John Taylor. The Taylor family owed a favor to Starks’ cousin, Dante Starks—a known crook who took the fall for former Mayor Myra Taylor.”
Those were names we were extremely familiar with!
Dante Starks first came on our radar in August of 2012 during the time Barbara Watson of Miami Gardens was a State Representative, and was suspected of committing absentee ballot fraud.
One of the characters she hired to work on her campaign was none other than Dante Starks, a former police officer and the former Chief of Staff for former Miami-Dade Commissioner Dorrin Rolle. Starks got himself arrested in Opa Locka with the then Vice Mayor Terence Pinder (yes, THAT Terence Pinder) back in 2007, as reported by the Eye on Miami.
On October 7, 2012 in North Miami’s Sidewalk-Gate, we wrote about a local racketeering ring that included Starks, Faustin Denis, Jr., and then-Opa-locka Commissioner Terence Pinder.
A couple days later, the Miami New Times picked up the story (giving us credit for which we are eternally grateful) that North Miami almost gave Faustin Denis Jr.’s company, IMECO, a $99,000 contract without properly vetting it.
It turns out, as the New Times reported, “there’s the issue of the company’s general manager, Faustin Denis, being on trial. On November 25, 2009, Denis was arrested on charges of racketeering and fraud over $50,000, along with former Opa-Locka City Commissioner Terence Pinder, who was charged with taking bribes in exchange for construction contracts, and former lobbyist and disgraced former cop Dante Starks.”
If that weren’t bad enough, on October 11, 2012, two days after that article was published, the Miami New Times reported, “Apparently, it takes more than felony charges to dissuade the North Miami City Council from giving your company a six-digit payout. On October 9, by a vote of 4-1, council members in North Miami awarded a $270,000 contract to IMECO, Inc., for a streetscaping project at Pioneer Boulevard.”
Folks, you can’t make this stuff up, either.
When all was said and done, Opa-locka Commissioner Terence Pinder, who was “ordered to turn himself over to Miami-Dade prosecutors on corruption charges” on May 25, 2016, apparently committed suicide two days earlier by ramming his “city-leased Chevy Tahoe … into a towering banyan tree,” according to the Miami Herald.
In one of the most ironic statements ever made, the Herald quoted a local activist (and future Vice Mayor-slash-grifter), Natasha Ervin, who said, “It’s sad that it has come to this, but we need a better Opa-locka.”
Two years later on June 25, 2018, Dante Starks and six other individuals pled guilty to corruption charges, including Opa-locka’s former mayor Myra Taylor’s son, Demetrius Corleon Taylor.
For the uninitiated, Demetrius Taylor happens to be the brother of the current Opa-locka mayor, John H. Taylor, Jr.
And the grift continues.
So does this blog.
We know we said this series would end on Part 3, but we didn’t expect to uncover so much dirt when we embarked on this journey.
We hope you stick around for Part 4, which we promise will be the grand finale!
Stephanie
