Posted on 11/13/2009 8:52:17 AM PST by IbJensen
Spence-Jones
Flanked by an entourage of clergy and supporters singing We Shall Overcome, a still-defiant Miami Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones swore innocence and vowed to clear her name before surrendering at the county courthouse to face a grand theft charge.
``This charge is about removing me from office and not seeking the truth,'' Spence-Jones said at an impromptu news conference in front of the Richard E. Gerstein Justice Building on Friday morning.
``I never forged any letters or stole any money.''
Miami-Dade prosecutors say Spence-Jones forged letters, including one in the name of former Miami-Dade Commissioner Barbara Carey-Shuler, to steer $50,000 in county grants to a family business in 2004 and 2005, before she was first elected.
Some of that grant money later went to Spence-Jones and her brother personally, or was used to pay credit-card bills for travel, clothes, satellite television and other expenses, according to an arrest warrant signed late Thursday.
She turned herself in just one day after she was sworn in for her second term and delivered a fiery speech alluding to a ``public lynching.'' On Friday, she called the grand theft charge ``the result of a witch hunt.''
Spence-Jones is charged with one count of second-degree grand theft. Bail is set at $12,500.
Prosecutors allege that Spence-Jones -- at the time a City Hall aide to then-Miami Mayor Manny Diaz -- submitted a letter in Carey-Shuler's name instructing a county-run social services agency to transfer the two grants to Karym Ventures, a company then owned by Spence-Jones and her family.
Spence-Jones is no longer an officer with the company.
Carey-Shuler told investigators that she never wrote the letter submitted by Spence-Jones. The letter, she noted, was written on old stationery that did not reflect Carey-Shuler's title as commission chairwoman.
One of Spence-Jones' attorneys, Richard Alayon, said that Carey-Shuler called him Friday morning to say her statement was ``taken out of context.''
``She was so incensed. She was hurt. She believes her statements were misconstrued,'' Alayon said.
After the news conference, Spence-Jones was led into the courthouse, to then be taken to the jail.
Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernández Rundle will detail the case at an afternoon news conference. She will also release the details of a misdemeanor charge against Commissioner Angel Gonzalez, who will resign from office Monday after he obtained a no-show job for a politically connected construction mogul.
Juan Delgado, of Delant Construction, will also be arrested in an unrelated allegedly bogus billing case, she will announce Friday afternoon. The Miami Herald
"Waah, waah, waah. I never knowed I was goin' to get caught! Wait till Obama hears 'bout dis!"
Looks like she’s going for the court of public opinion over the courtroom.
Miami, that vile and notorious cesspool of racism, is about to victimize a good daughter of Africa! Raise the alarm!/s
i knew it before i ever opened the thread...these people are never guilty are they...always someone elses fault...and ev en when they get caught with hand in cookie jar....oops how did that get in the ...bad hand bad hand...
BUMP!
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