We know where David Rivera is hiding

MIAMI – David Rivera is running from the law but he’s having a hard time hiding.

Rivera is under federal investigation for a slew of improprieties while he was in the state legislature and as a member of the U.S. Congress. Lately, David the peacock has chosen to become a chameleon as he shuns press interviews – something he loved at one time. He refuses to answer reporters’ questions telling them to email him their queries. Rivera’s defense about allegations against him is to color this whole affair a conspiracy while blaming everyone who sees through his disguised thug veneer as involved in a campaign to undo him.

Still, the noose seems to be tightening around his throat. Several weeks ago, at the time when former gal pal Ana Alliegro admitted to a judge in court that she helped break campaign-finance laws and then lied about it, U.S. Attorney Thomas Mulvihill gave up David Rivera as the co-conspirator in the Alliegro case. For months the federal government had refused to reveal the identity of the person who turned out to be Rivera. But under pressure from U.S. District Judge Robert Scola, Mulivihill was forced to reveal Rivera’s name in front of the judge.

Things got worse a few weeks later. At the sentencing of Alliegro, who received a one-year sentence split between six months she had already spent in jail and six months of house arrest and two-years probation, Judge Scola called out Rivera (not present in the courtroom) and basically questioned his manhood. In a shocking statement, Scola, who was visibly upset, said, “Some people would call it chivalry, some people call it sexism – that the man should come forward and not let the woman do time on his behalf.”

There’s also the fact that Rivera seems to be out of money. In an unrelated case to the Alliegro situation, where he was found in violation of seven instances of Florida’s Code of Ethics for Public Officers and Employees while he served in the state House, including accepting state reimbursement for travel already paid for by campaign accounts and not accurately disclosing his income, Rivera seems to be having a hard time retaining attorneys to defend him. Three have already quit on him and the reason seems to be that he has not paid them.

Turning rat?

Then there are those who question why Rivera has not been indicted – yet! He’s been named a co-conspirator in a federal case, but still he runs free…

I found an interesting piece in the Nelson Horta Reporta blog where Horta claims that reliable sources are telling him that Rivera may be working out a deal with federal authorities and will turn state’s witness. Horta reports that there are Venezuelans involved in the case. He mentions these names: physicians Leonardo Henríquez and Jesús Gómez, a teacher named Eduardo Marturet, well-known baseball player Omar Visquel, scientist José Sparza, business-persons Hilda Ochoa Brillembourg and Adriana Cisneros, and also Nicolás Felizola and actor Arquímedes Rivero.

Horta claims the feds are already investigating someone (or more than one) in this group. And he suggests that the persons may be behind the $80,000 given to Justin Lamar Sternad in the case that got Alliegro her jail time.

The obvious question that follows: Who will David Rivera rat out in order to save his own hide? Of course, that’s if the Horta allegations turn out to be true…

Rivera’s hiding spot

Finally, for the Miami press that can’t seem to find Rivera. Here’s a story that might be of interest.

I drop off my daughter at school every morning. On the way back on Monday, I returned home about 9:40 a.m. – delayed by a few errands. I work from my home so I was a bit later than usual.

Parking in the building where I live can be tricky. If you’re entering and someone is leaving, there are red light signals that offer the right of way to the person entering the parking lot. On this morning, as I entered, there was a car idling in the middle of “no man’s land” – an area that makes it almost impossible for the car entering to make the right hand turn required if another car is there.

Upon seeing the situation, I stopped. I waited… and worried that the automatic, steel gate would slam down on the top of my car that had opened above me. There was nothing else to do. After almost a minute I realized the driver in the other car had no intentions of moving. I pressed the issue; I drove forward forcing him to make a decision. When I neared the other car I looked in on the driver to say something (like, “Move, you idiot! You’re blocking my ingress!”).

That’s when I saw him. He seemed much skinnier making his bulging eyes look even more protruding. He looked at me. I am convinced he stared back scared. It was David Rivera leaving the parking lot.

David’s now a neighbor of mine; I checked with my building informants. And I know who he is living with. She happens to be a former judge who resigned after it was found that she may have been helping a convicted racketeer.

What’s that saying? Birds of a feather…