State of Florida takes lead in David Rivera probe
By Scott Hiaasen and David Ovalle
From The Miami Herald
Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernández Rundle has removed one of her top prosecution teams from the investigation of U.S. Rep. David Rivera and asked the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to take over as the lead agency in the politically sensitive probe.
This week, aides to Fernández Rundle asked detectives in the Miami-Dade Police Department’s public corruption squad to begin working with the FDLE’s Tallahassee office, which will now lead the Rivera probe. Miami-Dade detectives had previously been working primarily with a team of investigators and prosecutors within Fernández Rundle’s office.
But that team, led by longtime public corruption prosecutor Richard Scruggs, was removed from the Rivera case last week. Along with Scruggs, Fernández Rundle also removed prosecutor Christine Zahralban and Robert Fielder, a veteran corruption investigator and former Miami police detective.
Ed Griffith, a spokesman for Fernández Rundle, said Scruggs was pulled off the case to focus on the bribery prosecution of former Miami Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones, which is expected to go to trial next month.
“We think that’s a priority for the office, and the community,” Griffith said.
Scruggs declined to comment.
Assistant State Attorney Joe Centorino, the chief public corruption prosecutor in Fernández Rundle’s office, will now take over as the lead prosecutor on the Rivera case. Centorino had already been working with FDLE on the Rivera probe, though focusing on different elements than Scruggs.
Centorino would not comment on Scruggs’ removal from the case. But he said: “The investigation is continuing.”
Cmdr. Nancy Perez, a spokeswoman for Miami-Dade police, said her department’s role in the investigation will not change following the shake-up. “We are still assisting,” she said.
The FDLE is pursuing the case through its executive investigations office, which investigates state officials, said Jose Arrojo, chief assistant to Fernández Rundle.
Fernández Rundle’s moves come at a time when the scope of the Rivera probe appeared to be expanding on multiple fronts.
