According to the statement of facts, a document of public record produced by the State Attorney’s Office, summarized below, Isaac Aelion not only violated the law, but also lied to investigators. Isaac Aelion was ultmately convicted for his wrongdoing, but INCREDIBLY, remains in office. We want to give special thanks to the State Attorney’s Office and the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics for their relentless investigation efforts and hard work.
Read the entire criminal investigation Statement of Facts and Close out Memo prepared by the Miami State Attorneys Office, Corruption Unit working together with the Internal Affairs Dept. of the Miami-Dade Commission of Ethics by clicking on the following links :STATEMENT.OF.FACTS.Aelion and CLOSEOUT.MEMO.
SUMMARY:
Paragraph 1: On or about November 1, 2010, the Miami-Dade County Commission on Ethics and Public Trust (hereinafter “COE”) opened an investigation into possible misconduct by ISAAC AELION (hereinafter “the DEFENDANT”), who was at the time a candidate for Seat 4 on the Sunny Isles Beach City Commission. The inquiry was carried out with the support and supervision of the Miami-Dade County State Attorney’s Office (hereinafter “SAO”), and with the assistance of the office of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (hereinafter “USPIS”).
Paragraph 2: Isaac Aelion broke the law by having 8,500 copies mailed to SIB voters of an “anonymous political mailer attacking rivals”
Paragraph 4 – US Postal Investigator traces origin of “anonymous attack mailer” to print shop, where owner recalls preparing the mailer on behalf of Isaac Aelion.
Paragraph 5: State Attorney’s Office takes a sworn statement from print shop owner in which he identifies Aelion & reiterates his claim that Aelion was “the person who engineered the mailing.”
Paragraph 6 – Isaac Aelion asks print shop owner if mailer could be “traced back to him” and print shop owner describes Aelion’s behavior as “very suspicious.”
Paragraph 7 – Print shop owner asserts that the next day Isaac Aelion delivers cash (supposedly untraceable) to pay for 8,500 mailers to be sent to SIB voters by bulk mail.
Paragraph 8 – Print shop owner provides investigators with receipt for the cash payment of $3,659 from Isaac Aelion.
Paragraph 9 – Investigators get copies of and review Aelion’s Campaign Treasurer’s Report (CTR) and find no entry for the $3,659 expenditure of the anonymous attack mailer. Yet Aelion certifies that the CTR as “true, correct and complete” in accordance with the law.
Paragraph 10 – Aelion LIES to investigators when questioned about the mailer.
Paragraph 11 – Aelion LIES for a second time to investigators when questioned again stating “I don’t know who did this…..I have really nothing to do with the mailer – and you can quote me on that.”
Paragraph 13: Investigators declare probable cause to believe that Isaac Aelion, now Sunny Isles Beach City Commissioner, incurred in criminal violations of state law in connection with his role in creating, mass-producing, and circulating an anonymous political mailer.
The Statement of Facts reads like a Shakespearean tragedy in 13 parts…..it is an unbelievable tale of corruption and treachery with a sense of impending doom as the full impact of Aelion’s actions are revealed.
Recall! Recall! Recall! Or save everybody the trouble and just GO GO GO!
Overheard in local beauty shop: A woman claimed she spoke to Aelion about this disgraceful scandal and all he had to say was “I made a mistake. I’m sorry.”
I think Aelion is only sorry he got caught! Aelion should do this town a favor and resign.
On a recent NBC Dateline show which was aired last week, Dateline reporter Josh Mankiewicz stated the following: “Basically, pleading NO CONTEST is an admission of guilt.”
Black’s Law Dictionary’s definition: No contest. A criminal defendant’s plea, that while not admitting guilt, the defendant will not dispute the charge. This plea is often preferable to a guilty plea, which can be used against the defendant in a later civil suit.
It is pathetic when an elected official hides behind the NO CONTEST plea instead of being man enough to admit they violated the law.