Miami's new public corruption squad flexed its first muscles Thursday with the announcement of eight arrests, including three police officers and a city administrator in a crackdown the mayor said would end Miami's "culture of corruption."
Yet the significance of the crackdown came under immediate question.
In unusually strong language, Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle questioned some of the arrests — saying Miami did not turn to her office in one case and that prosecutors had declined to bring charges in another.
Then early Thursday evening, she sent a terse note to Miami's mayor, city manager and police chief that questioned them for moving forward on two of the arrests.
"I am sure that you all know very well that based on the evidence presented to my prosecutors and their analysis of the law there is no state criminal charge that can be filed," Fernandez Rundle said.
Countered Miami Police Commander Delrish Moss: "We stand behind what we said at the press conference. We stand behind the arrests that we made."
Miami's arrests included people from two nonprofit agencies that received city funding, three officers charged with official misconduct and other crimes and a city administrator accused of using city workers to upgrade his home. The arrests came as the city also announced the firing of several department directors.
Read more of this story at MiamiHerald.com
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