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Miami-Dade’s top cop is great at putting on a show for the local media. Flanked by her public corruption lieutenants and other law enforcers last November 13, Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle stood before a roomful of reporters to announce the arrest of then-Miami Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones, as well as unrelated criminal indictments against Angel Gonzalez, who resigned from his commission seat, and local businessman Juan Delgado. Blown-up mug shots of the accused and diagrams depicting their alleged schemes were prominently displayed.
“Despite what TV shows like to portray,” Fernandez Rundle intoned, “putting together a solid public corruption case requires dilligence and good, bold, blind determination.”
But now that the star witness against Spence-Jones has backed off an earlier sworn statement that gave prosecutors probable cause to arrest the suspended Miami politician, Fernandez Rundle is silent. Through her spokesman Ed Griffith, she declined to answer questions about Barbara Carey-Shuler’s recent admission under oath that she approved $50,000 in county grants for a company owned by Spence-Jones and her relatives.
“It would be improper for us to be discussing such factual case matters that relate directly to the upcoming case,” Griffith said.
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