A Blackmail Attempt Fails

During the  commission meeting on Tuesday May 10, 2017, Commissioner Hornsby startled some of his fellow commissioners by announcing that he had been arrested and convicted in the late 1980's for an offense involving cocaine.  It happened in his then home of Tennessee and since then, he has completed rehab, always noted the incident on his professional certifications and been upfront about his past.  

The reason he brought this to the commission was because he and his wife have been receiving anonymous threats to reveal this information because the writer did not like the way Hornsby had voted on certain issues.  Instead of trying to keep it under wraps, Hornsby decided a public statement was in order and that's what he made.   

In the meantime, the letters sent through the mail and the threats sent I believe by text or possibly email have been turned over to the federal authorities and North Bay Village Chief Noriega has told me that the PD is aggressively pursuing the case with the feds.   

Following the advice of the Village Attorney and to ensure that there would not be any confusion about previous votes taken by Hornsby, the Village Commission voted 4-0 to reaffirm Hornsby's position on the commission and his previous votes.    

Hornsby and his wife are not talking about the case as it is under investigation and that's pretty well all I know about this situation.  

However, I do know about other situations.  In 2010, an attempt was made to blackmail then Commissioner Frank Rodriguez by revealing the contents of a supposed arrest from his youth.   Then Police Chief Daniels refused to have the PD investigate because Daniels was a terrible police officer.   

Also in that same month, filthy anonymous letters were mailed threatening exposure of real or imagined crimes to candidates who were not approved by the North Bay Island junta and although sent anonymously, falsely used my return address.  Police Chief Daniels refused to accept my complaint because he did not want the department involved in politics.  

Former Commissioner Richard Chervony was the victim of anonymous mailings to his study colleagues in a Good Government class as a clumsy attempt to discredit him.  

Former Mayor Corina Esquijarosa was barraged with similar tactics while she was on the dais.   The list goes on.  

My point is this is old school, North Bay Village, dirty politics.  I think the big difference now is that we have a new sheriff in town with Carlos Noriega and I believe him when he says the force will pursue this.   

I don't know where it will lead, but I hope that they do find and punish the creep or creeps behind this. We've been too long harmed by this bullshit.  

Kevin Vericker

May 13, 2017