The noose tightens
Pretend it’s a rope cowboys toss to bring down a calf during a rodeo: It’s thrown, it hits the mark, then you pull!
Remind you of a Miami politician? At the end of that cord?
David Rivera comes to mind…
I use the noose allegory because David’s day appears to be nearing. And… is there any Miami politician who deserves it more? This man has done more harm to this area, to the people who’ve helped him, and ended up with more ‘illegal’ money – in his pocket, or in someone else’s, who shilled for him – than most crooked politicians. And Miami specializes in those.
But the noose is starting to choke. Less air is being let in.
Judge David Watkins, an administrative law judge in Tallahassee, today (March 6) suggested that Rivera be forced to pay $57,821.96 for breaking Florida ethics rules while he was a state legislator.
“The recommendation will go to the Florida Commission on Ethics, which must then issue a final order. Any penalty would ultimately have to be imposed by House Speaker Steve Crisafulli, a Merritt Island Republican who served with Rivera from 2008-10,” reported the Miami Herald.
Rivera remains defiant. “This is a long way from over and I have not yet begun to fight!” he wrote in an email to the Miami Herald.
I think Rivera has lost it. And by this I don’t mean he ever had it… I’ve written in the past that this guy is a sociopath. To date, he’s never shown me differently.
At this point he’s hanging on. Flailing like a man overboard in the middle of an ocean full of sharks.
In 2012, the judge found that Rivera “failed to disclose his income and double billed taxpayers by accepting state reimbursement for travel previously paid for by his campaign account.”
Let’s see what Crisafulli does in Tallahassee. And later, what the feds do…
“Rivera remains under federal criminal investigation as the suspected mastermind of an unrelated campaign-finance scheme. He has twice been identified by a federal prosecutor in open court as a “co-conspirator” in the case, but has not been indicted,” reported the Herald.
