Retired Miami-Dade Police Lt. Lewis Velken was snuck in last night by recently hired Village Manager Marlen Martell. The four corruptocrats, Mayor Crazy Eyes Kreps, Commissioner Mary Kramer's Husband, Commissioner Laura Cattabriga* (*pending a lawsuit on her illegal installation), and "Vice Mayor" Andreana Jackson obligingly voted without comment to hire Velken.  Actual Vice Mayor Eddie Lim notified the clerk that he was too well to engage in the sleaze last night and sensibly absented himself.   (*note - Lim didn't share his reasoning with me.  I'm surmising.)

The first two choices withdrew from the process for unpublished reasons and it was absolutely critical to get a chief in ASAP.   So Velken, who had a good reputation at the MDPD but never served as a high level command officer, was hustled in and installed.   

The room was jam packed with ...

people from out of town.  You see, the announcement of Velken as a chief for North Bay Village was made countywide, including Crime Watch chair Carmen Caldwell, but was deliberately not posted or announced in North Bay Village.  Our commission and administration wanted it that way because they are terrible people.  

You see, it was critical to fill the chief spot because when Martell fired Carlos Noriega and she lied about not knowing that there was a whistle-blower notification presented to her, Noriega let the village know that he intends to sue.  

Our Village administration came to to the conclusion that since the chief is likely to prevail in his lawsuit,  it was critical to put in another chief now.  The courts hate complications and might be hesitant to insist that a recently installed chief be let go when they find the previous chief was fired illegally.   It just complicates things.  

So a chief had to be found and installed ASAP to make it more difficult for Noriega to come back.   And it might work.  

Now I don't know if Velken has been instructed that the North Bay Village PD is to stand down on the extortion investigation in the Hornsby matter, or told to make sure that a current embezzlement investigation does not implicate sitting members of the dais.   I'm pretty sure with his reputation in Miami Dade PD's Public Corruption unit that even our creep commission would have been careful to not be explicit.  But Velken must be aware that protecting the commission from prosecution is the prime directive and that he was hired in hurry by people who do things in the dark to replace a popular chief.  It's going to be a rocky run. 

Kevin Vericker

April 19, 2018