March 9, 2013. As SIBR readers will recall, on August 30, 2011, Commissioner Isaac Aelion pleaded “no contest” to several counts of illegal campaigning. Prosecutors stated Aelion paid cash for an anonymous political mailing attacking his opponents and supporting Aelion and
other candidates. Aelion failed to report this illegal cash expenditure in his campaign
finance records.
What does it mean to plead “no contest”? According Wikipedia and other online legal sources: In criminal trials in certain U.S. jurisdictions, it is a plea where the defendant neither admits nor disputes a charge, serving as an alternative to a pleading of guilty or not guilty. A no-contest plea, while not technically a guilty plea, has the same immediate effect as a guilty plea. (For entire entry go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nolo_contendere ).
Read Isaac’s entire criminal investigation Statement of Facts and Close out Memo prepared by the Miami State Attorney’s 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.
To read our previous article on this issue, click here: https://sibreporter.net/2012/06/isaac-aelion-lied-to-investigators-stating-you-can-quote-me-on-that/
Isaac Aelion was sentenced to one year’s probation by Miami-Dade County Judge Cristina Miranda and ordered to repay $4,000 for investigative costs and serve 35 hours of community service. He has since completed his probation.
For those keeping track, Isaac Aelion is the first, and hopefully only, sitting commissioner to ever be convicted of a crime. We have waited patiently for any official admission or expression of remorse. At this time, we take the opportunity to quote Isaac Aelion’s public apology in its entirety:
“________, ________ _____ . _____ _______;_______ ___ -______ ______.”
If only his commission meeting commentary were as succinct and profound.
That’s right. Isaac committed a crime, lied to investigators and the Miami Dade Ethics
Commission, was found guilty, is believed to have justified his morally bankrupt conduct on the internet [click here to read previous “Discussion” article on this point: https://sibreporter.net/2012/07/surprising-discussion-on-new-times-blog-following-tim-elfrinks-8312011-article/ ], and was REWARDED by being appointed Vice Mayor. Was this a gross oversight or default result? Was Isaac appointed because no other commissioner would take on the responsibility? We can think of no other logical explanation, though we are certain that is not the case. And even if it were, we are just as certain that Isaac would not admit that either.
On a lighter note, we do find it somewhat amusing that Isaac, a man who for years has made a living “peddling to the weak,” (as described by one of our readers in the “Discussion” article), a man who has profited from people’s VICE through his gambling businesses, was appointed VICE Mayor of our City. Thanks to his new title, however undeserved, we will always have a reminder of Isaac’s questionable background.
It is obvious that Isaac Aelion embraces the idea that if he ignores something long enough, voters will forget. And he almost certainly welcomes a prestigious position (being vice mayor) as a buffer for the shame and embarrassment he brought upon the City when he lied to investigators and violated the law in order to win an election.
In the end, Isaac may be a great optimist who believes that SIB voters will see
his past conduct as “water under the bridge.” And if that is the case, the SIB Reporter is the dam.
Unfortunately for Isaac, SIB voters have excellent memories. And they can count
on the SIB Reporter to help keep it that way.