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NUMBER 183 - DECEMBER 6, 2019
JAVIER ORTIZ AND THE CIP WENT A COUPLE ROUNDS AND THE OUTCOME WAS A SPLIT DECISION
Last Wednesday afternoon, Captain Javier Ortiz, accompanied by attorney Robert Buschel appeared at a complaint hearing before the Civilian Investigative Panel, to respond to a series of allegations lodged against him by retired Miami police sergeant Nestor Garcia.
The meeting started with bluster and accusations of defamation by Buschel, based on claims made in a cover letter and packet of information that he submitted on Ortiz's behalf challenging the allegation.
Here is the cover letter.
Copyrighted: 2011,2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019
The allegations of defamation and demand for a written apology from the Miami Herald were all pretty much bullshit, but revealing of how Ortiz and his attorney tend to respond to any and all accusations that are lodged against him or other FOP members.
What was entertaining for me was the way in which both the attorney and Ortiz gestured to the TV camera from 3 local channels who showed up to cover this hearing, and referenced the Herald and the article that they had previously published on the allegations lodged against Ortiz for double-dipping as the reason why the hearing had attracted so much TV coverage.
In fact, the real reason for their showing up was the press release that Ortiz had sent out to the news media announcing that he would show up for the hearing.
The one news organization that should have shown up, but didn't, was the Miami Herald. Chuck Rabin it seems is always willing to chase anything other than a good story, which is why coverage of the police in Miami has become so abysmally poor.
Several of the allegations made by Nestor Garcia, were obviously based on rumors posted on the police bulletin board LEO Affairs, and deserved to be dismissed, several of the allegations are related to open investigations being done by Internal Affairs, and therefore required being deferred until the investigations then there were the allegations of Ortiz's recent actions attacking Commissioner carollo and the questionable claim of his being in the US Marines.
The one set of allegations dealing with off-duty pay is the one that has raised the most attention and interest, and it is the issue that was the basis for the rebuttal letter and documents provided by Ortiz's attorney.
Rather than provide an explanation, the documents provided did not include any sort of explanatory narrative which at the least only provided more confusion to the average person trying to understand whether the allegations were creditable.
The other observation that I have, and is based on my own reading of both the complaint and the rebuttal documents and my knowledge of how the police department really works is that there is a reasonable question of how much influence Ortiz exercises over the police officers who are responsible for preparing and reviewing all of these off-duty records.
Ortiz has been given command of multiple special units, which in turn were allegedly responsible for preparing, or approving some of these off-duty payments.
Because I sat there and listen to all the back and forth, and found it confusing, I have included below a copy of the hearing - there are a couple places where I missed a minute or two because the recording time on my camera ran out and I had to start a new recording, but for reviewing purposes it's all there.
Plus I have included the CIP complaint, and a 2nd document that they prepared that details their calculations on the abuses of off-duty hours, and finally the cover letter and documents from Ortiz.
I would ask that folks in the police department go through these and send me your email responses and comments.
I'm interest in process and verifiable explanations, and not on personal attacks on either Ortiz or anyone with the CIP. You can continue to do both on LEO Affairs.
I'm just interested in following the money.
Thanks.
Ortiz CIP Complaint by al_crespo on Scribd
Ortiz Response To CIP Alleg... by al_crespo on Scribd
Ortiz Job List/Off-Duty Que... by al_crespo on Scribd