I love reading Internal Affairs Investigation Reports.

Especially when they’re written by North Miami Beach Police Sgt. Richard Silberman.

Especially when they’re about North Miami Beach Councilman Frantz Pierre.

I just read this latest one dated April 4, 2012, which should have been subtitled, “L’il Frantzie P: Unhinged.”  But since all fifteen pages of the IA Report is too long to reprint here, I just had to review it in all its glorious detail for your reading pleasure.

First some background:  When I started digging through the voter roles and noticed that there were multiple “voters” living at Frantz Pierre’s house, I wrote about it in Instant Karma’s Gonna Get You.  I also sent an email to Code Compliance Manager Eric Wardle, advising him that all these people living under one roof was against the city’s code, which states that no more than three people, unrelated by marriage, birth or adoption, can reside in a single family home.  According to the Internal Affairs Investigation Report, Eric Wardle then contacted Customer Services Assistant Director Ben Supraski and asked him to check out the water meter to see how much water was being used at Pierre’s house and to also check for leaks.  Then, all hell broke loose as I reported in Frantzie’s Choice.

On Mr. Wardle’s directive, Mr. Supraski sent Water Meter Reader Antonio Ortega to the house with a work order, who had no idea he was about to walk into a firestorm of trouble.  According to the IA Report, Mr. Ortega knocked on the door, waited a spell, and when no one answered he went to check on the water meter.  While he was checking the meter, two people walked out of the house and Mr. Ortega advised them to not use the water for five minutes so he could check for leaks.  One of the people handed Mr. Ortega a phone and said, “Somebody wants to talk to you.”  He took the phone and a man said to him, “What the hell are you doing in my house?”  Mr. Ortega explained why he was there, and the man demanded that he come to City Manager Lyndon Bonner’s office “right now.”

Mr. Ortega immediately contacted his supervisor, Robert Barrabeitg, who said he would accompany him to Mr. Bonner’s office.  Upon arrival at his office, Mr. Ortega handed the work order, which was on a clipboard, to Mr. Bonner.  According to Mr. Ortega’s testimony, “Pierre then grabbed the clipboard, started reading it, then threw the clipboard on the top of the table … Then Pierre went back and grabbed a chain and slammed it down on the floor.  Ortega stated that Pierre then looked at him and said, ‘You’re a fucking liar.  Are you calling me a liar to my face?'”  Ortega stated that Pierre was “angry and out of control.”

At that point, Mr. Ortega and Mr. Barrabeitg went to the police department to file a report, in which he claimed that he had no idea he was at Pierre’s house since the work order listed one “Joseph Angie” as the owner.  He also stated that he did not ask to go into Pierre’s house, but merely followed protocol by knocking the door and waiting five minutes before checking the meter.  Mr. Ortega also told police that when the woman at the house handed him the phone, he had no idea who he was speaking to and that the man “was very angry and verbally abusive.”  He also stated that he had never had any direct contact with Frantz before and only knew what he looked like from his picture at City Hall.

After the police report was filed, Mr. Bonner came to Mr. Ortega and apologized on behalf of Frantz.  Then Mr. Ortega was handed a phone by one of his co-workers named “Paul” who told him that Pierre apologizes and that it wasn’t personal.  Mr. Ortega claims Pierre said, “It was political things.”  He also told police that “Paul” goes to the same church as Frantz Pierre.  The plot thickens.

Antonio Ortega’s supervisor, Robert Barrabeitg, was also interviewed.  He corroborated everything Mr. Ortega said about what occurred in Mr. Bonner’s office, adding more details about Frantzie’s outburst.  According to Mr. Barrabeitg’s testimony, when Pierre grabbed the clipboard out of Mr. Bonner’s hands, he started screaming, “What the fuck is going on here?  What the hell is this shit?  I can’t believe this shit.  See what goes on here?”  He also added that Pierre, “grabbed a chair, tried to lift it.  But when he was trying to lift it, he threw it against two other chairs that slammed into each other in the corner of the room…”  Mr. Barrabeitg also confirmed that Pierre yelled more profanities at Mr. Ortega, saying “Who the hell do you think you are?” and “just went crazy screaming for no reason.”  He also stated that Mr. Ortega was responding to a work order to check a leak at the home of “Joseph Angie” and that he had followed protocol.

Both Mr. Ortega and Mr. Barrabeitg claimed they were concerned for their jobs, because they figured if they pissed off a councilman they’d be history.  Mr. Bonner assured them both this was not the case.

Mr. Bonner was also interviewed and reiterated the events as he had witnessed them.  While he did not go into elaborate details, he did confirm that Pierre “forcefully put [the clipboard] on the desk.”  Mr. Bonner also stated, “at that point, the councilman, he was using some explicatives [sic], which are, you know, inappropriate.  His conduct, um, just using that tone, that voice is…was bothersome to me.  And then, he did go back over around that chair, and get to his chair, while he was using these explicatives [sic], and he grabbed the chair just like that.  You know, very frustrated and all that.  At that point in time, I instructed the employees to leave the room.”

Benjamin Supraski was also interviewed and told his side of the story, including his instructions from Mr. Wardle about the meter reading.  He also confirmed that the “account owner of record for the water bill is listed as Angie Joseph.”

Enter Shonta Renee Darden, who is actually the police department’s Domestic Violence Specialist, but who was filling in for Mr. Bonner’s secretary that day.  She confirmed that she heard profanity coming from Mr. Bonner’s office, and that she heard some reference to “liar.”  She also stated she heard the “F-bomb” coming from the office, and that it sounded like Pierre’s voice, but she couldn’t see inside the office, she wasn’t sure who said it.  She also heard the “rumbling of a chair,” but beyond that Ms. Darden had nothing to add.

The best part of the Internal Affairs Investigation Report of April 4, 2012 was the interview of Frantz Pierre himself.  Right off the bat, Frantzie “questioned repeatedly the protocol for this matter having to be investigated by the police department…”  How dare they question HIM?  Apparently, Mr. Ortega had previously submitted two memoranda, one to the Human Resources Department and one to his supervisor.  Pierre read both of them and told the police “he disagreed with everything that happened.”  Frantzie then concocted a story that rivals any of the whoppers he’s known to tell, stating that Ortega called him and told him that he was “forced, coerced, intimidated to write this report against me.”

Pierre insisted “that Ortega called him on his cell phone; however, Pierre could not find the entry on his phone.”

In the fairy tale created by Frantz, he claims that “Ortega allegedly gave him names of the people that supposedly coerced him to write his memorandums…” and that “Ortega gave him the names, and also gave them to City Attorney Darcee Siegel.”  When asked by the police investigator for these alleged names, Pierre refused to give them.

Sgt. Silberman then reproduced in its entirety the transcribed statement made by Pierre, in which he told a completely different version from the one told by three witnesses, including Mr. Ortega, Mr. Barrabeitg and Mr. Bonner, and in which he also downplayed his own temper tantrum.  He admitted he was upset but claimed “there was no chair grabbing, no chair throwing, no, no work throwing, no, nothing of that nature.”  He also included a strange tale of a surreptitious meeting at Denny’s that Frantz arranged with Mr. Ortega, during which he tried to get Mr. Ortega to lie about being coerced into writing his memoranda.  When Mr. Ortega was asked why he met Frantzie at Denny’s, he indicated that he was concerned about losing his job.  If anyone was doing the intimidating, it was Frantz Pierre himself!

City Attorney Darcee Siegel was also interviewed, and was asked about the names of the people who coerced Ortega into writing his memoranda.  Contrary to Frantzie’s fable, Ms. Siegel stated she knew nothing of the sort.

In order to truly appreciate what a liar Frantz is, and to truly grasp his complete and utter stupidity, I strongly suggest you read the IA Report’s transcript of his testimony from beginning to end.  If I were to try to quote him in all his glorious stupidity, I would be doing a grave injustice.  Please let me know if you’d like a copy of the report and I’ll be more than happy to send it to you.

Sgt. Silberman wrapped up the Internal Affairs Investigation Report by stating that he found “no improper action on the part of the employees.”  In addition, he wrote, “Inappropriate conduct and language on the part of Councilman Pierre was witnessed by and attested to by the City Manager Lyndon Bonner, Antonio Ortega, Robert Barrabeitg and temporary clerical assistant Rene Darden.”  Sgt. Silberman also noted “another area of concern” because Pierre contacted Ortega and had him meet him at Denny’s.  He wrote, “Had it been solely to apologize for the incident (which had already been done), it would not be as disconcerting as the Councilman conducting his own investigation and questioning Ortega about the memorandums/letters he submitted.  According to Ortega, Pierre questioned him several times about writing the letters, which again would be inappropriate for a Councilman to be questioning a city worker in this manner.  The matter has been deemed, non-criminal in nature.”

This was not the first time time Frantz Pierre has been the subject of an Internal Affairs investigation.  As I reported in The Frantz Files, he also made false allegations against another employee, Mr. Jean Pompee.  In his overactive imagination, Frantzie also filed a false police report against Ketley Joachim, who ran against him in the last city council election, claiming he was in fear of his life, which I also mentioned in that blog.  I am amazed at how easily Frantz just makes up shit whenever it suits him.

He also thinks he’s a Somebody.

L’il Frantzie P still hasn’t figured out that he’s a Nobody.  He was one of three useful idiots who were installed on that dais back in 2007 for reasons I won’t go into here in this column.  I’ll save that story for a future blog.

Although we were able to boot one of the dimwits, Myron Rosner, from the dais, we’re still being subjected to the comical Phyllis and Phrantz Show at every turn.  (Wait until you see my take on the recent Sanitation Workshop – both of them were in full Moron Mode!  That blog is in the works.)

For now, this concludes my report of the latest foible of L’il Frantzie P for The Frantz Files.  Frantzie has no idea he’s nothing but a useful idiot.  Then again, if it weren’t for his self-aggrandizing buffoonery, we’d only have Phyllis to make fun of.  And, where’s the fun in that?

Stephanie Kienzle
“Spreading the Wealth”