herald.com
Commissioner's secretary charged with voter
fraud
By GAIL EPSTEIN and KAREN BRANCH
Herald Staff Writers
In the most direct link yet between a sitting Miami
politician and alleged voter fraud, police arrested the law
secretary of Commission Chairman Humberto
Hernandez on Friday and charged her with falsifying her
address so she could vote for her boss.
Agents for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement
arrested Yarina de los Rios, 25, at Hernandez's private law office in Coral
Gables. A Harvard University graduate, de los Rios works for Hernandez
while attending law school at the University of Miami. She formerly worked
for him at City Hall.
Her arrest was the latest development in a burgeoning scandal that has
prompted two arrests, a state Senate inquiry into absentee-ballot fraud and a
lawsuit by former Mayor Joe Carollo seeking to overturn the Nov. 4 election.
Prosecutors allege de los Rios broke the law with the help of accused vote
broker Alberto Russi, 92, a Hernandez campaign volunteer arrested in
November for allegedly casting a dead man's ballot and committing other
absentee-ballot fraud.
In an interview with The Herald last year, Russi said he helped de los Rios
switch her voting address, saying, ``She does not live in the district, but she
felt pressured because she works for Humbertico. I helped her transfer her
vote to the house next door so she could vote for him.''
De los Rios denied Russi's charge. In a separate interview last year, she told
The Herald she did not feel pressured to vote for her boss, and said she
changed addresses because she had moved in with her boyfriend.
``My side of the story is, when I moved to my boyfriend's house, since my
boyfriend's not a citizen, I figured my driver's license and voter registration
should be under that address. I asked Mr. Russi if he knew where the
Department of Elections was, and he said, `I could help you get all the
changes.' ''
De los Rios added: ``The reason why I voted absentee, I was working with
Mr. Hernandez. Actually, I didn't even know that was District 3. I figured I
could vote for all of the commissioners from anywhere you live in the city. I
used to live in Boston, and that's how you vote there. I would have voted for
Bert, anyways, if I was living anywhere in the city.''
Switched addresses
De los Rios was one of dozens of voters who switched their registration to
addresses in Hernandez's district just in time to vote in the election -- even
though public records indicate they live elsewhere.
Records show de los Rios changed her voting address from 825 S. Bayshore
Dr. in District 2, where she allegedly lived with her mother, to 418 SW 26th
Rd. in District 3, Hernandez's district. She cast her ballot from that address --
a house next door to Russi's in The Roads section of Miami.
Three other people voted from that address as well. All four ballots were
witnessed by Russi. But the homeowner, Ela Reyes, said she knows none of
the four. Public records, including driver's licenses and auto registrations, put
all four voters at homes outside Hernandez's district.
Officers charged de los Rios with three felony counts of false swearing, fraud
and voting as an unqualified elector. The charges -- punishable by a maximum
of five years in prison and a $5,000 fine on conviction -- stem from her
signing and swearing to her address changes on a voter-registration form and
an absentee-ballot form filed in the Nov. 4 election.
``The overwhelming majority of Americans take the right of voting to be very
sacred,'' said Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle,
promising more arrests. ``And yet, there is this handful of renegades who
don't respect the importance of how fundamental this is to our democratic
process.''
Tearful booking
A tearful de los Rios was being booked into the Miami-Dade County Jail and
could not be reached for comment. Her attorney, Luciano Isla, did not return
phone calls. Her mother, Marisol Sanchez, did not return two phone
messages.
Hernandez, who was not in his law office during the arrest, did not return
phone messages to his City Hall or law offices. He did not answer his beeper
or his home phone.
But in a New Times article this week about the likelihood of a new mayoral
election being ordered by a judge, Hernandez was quoted as saying he didn't
think most voters care about alleged voter fraud. Voters re-elected him
despite his pending trial on federal bank fraud and money-laundering charges.
``If you've been here long enough, you know that nobody gives a flying f--- if
you ran a clean campaign,'' New Times quoted him as saying. ``Nobody
gives a s--- if you were involved in absentee-ballot fraud or what have you.
The bottom line is that you won.''
The FDLE investigation is focusing on the campaigns of both Hernandez and
Miami Mayor Xavier Suarez, which teamed up in an aggressive effort to
gather absentee ballots and shared many of the same volunteers, including
Russi. Suarez forced Carollo into a run-off thanks to a 2-to-1 advantage in
absentee votes.
A large number of Suarez's absentee votes came from Hernandez's District 3,
home to just 19 percent of Miami's registered voters but the source of 39
percent of absentee ballots cast in the Nov. 4 election.
A Herald review showed that at least 40 people voted from a dozen District
3 addresses tied to Hernandez supporters even though public records
indicate they live outside the district.
Suarez has accused the FDLE of entrapping one of his campaign volunteers,
Miguel Amador, who was arrested when he allegedly agreed to buy three
absentee ballots from undercover agents. Suarez also said he would appoint
Hernandez to counterinvestigate the FDLE probe.
Jorge Alvarez, Suarez's chief of staff, said the mayor would not comment on
the arrest Friday ``because it has nothing to do with us. We feel bad for
someone who has to go through an arrest. We don't know her personally.''
Herald staff writers Andres Viglucci and Ken Rodriguez contributed to this
report. |
