Former Commissioner Pleads Guilty To Felonies

From the Miami Times:

By Bianca Marcof

Nov 18, 2020

Former North Miami Beach Commissioner Frantz Pierre has begun serving two years of house arrest in a plea deal that allows him to evade prison by pleading guilty to 11 felony charges.

According to the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office, Pierre pled guilty to seven counts of money laundering, one count of bribery, one count of unlawful compensation for official behavior, one count of organized scheme to defraud and one count of grand theft.

The charges include accepting $12,500 in bribes from a North Miami Beach strip club owner in exchange for Pierre’s city commission vote to allow extended after-hours liquor sales at the club, and stealing $2,000 from the City of North Miami Beach through a fraudulent grant.

“Every citizen rightfully expects their elected officials to work in the best interests of the community,” State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said in a statement. "Former Commissioner Frantz Pierre's crime was that he chose to make his elected office profitable for himself. Neither I nor the skilled investigators of my public corruption task force will ever allow that to happen."

Following the two years of house arrest with a GPS monitor, Pierre will have four years of probation. He also will have to repay the $2,000 and had to surrender his seat on the commission.

The Miami Times is the largest Black-owned newspaper in the south serving Miami's Black community since 1923. The award-winning weekly is frequently recognized as the best Black newspaper in the country by the National Newspaper Publishers Association.