***BREAKING*** CANVASSING BOARD RULES THAT BOB DEAN LIVES IN THAT LITTLE APARTMENT ON BAHAMA STREET AND NOT WITH HIS WIFE IN THAT BIG HOUSE IN KEY HAVEN. WE’RE NOT MAKING THIS UP
Video by Naja and Arnaud Girard…….
Commentary by Dennis Reeves Cooper…….
Suppose that you are inclined to tell people that you own the Cow Key Channel Bridge and, furthermore, that you are willing to sell it for a reasonable price. And suppose that you hear that there are three Key West residents who might be gullible enough to actually believe that you do own the bridge and who might be willing to make an offer. Who do you think those three people might be?
How about the three members of the Key West Elections Canvassing Board– City Commissioners Jimmy Weekley and Clayton Lopez and City Clerk Cheri Smith. They just voted this morning to allow Bob Dean’s vote in the recent Key West city election to count — even though an investigation by the Monroe County State Attorney’s Office found that Dean doesn’t live in Key West; he lives in Key Haven, which is outside the Key West city limits. The purpose of the Canvassing Board meeting, which was open to the public, was to decide which provisional ballots would count and which would not count. Dean had to vote with a provisional ballot because State Attorney Catherine Vogel had challenged his eligibility to vote in Key West.
It was actually humorous to watch the members of the Canvassing Board struggle, obviously trying to find a rationale to vote in favor of Dean, one of the most prominent citizens in this community. City Attorney Shawn Smith, addressing the board by phone, advised them that the voter’s “intent” was an important consideration– but that intent had to be backed up with evidence. The State Attorney’s report found that, although the Bahama Street address has been on his voting card since at least 2004, virtually every other document in Dean’s life– like auto registration and his state funeral directors license– carries the Key Haven address. Dean changed the address on his drivers license from Key Haven to Key West just a couple of weeks ago. Evidence provided by Dean included his voters card and a statement swearing to God that his primary address is on Bahama Street in Key West and not Key Haven.
That was enough for the Canvassing Board. The vote was 3-0.
At the heart of this residency controversy is the fact that Dean sits on two important boards– the Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority (FKAA) and the Key West Housing Authority. Both positions require that Dean live in Key West.
For more background information, see our story in today’s Blue Paper.
Wonder what they will get as a thank you gift. Well people you just seen proof positive of corruption. Every dam one of them fully know where he really lives and helped him commit perjury. They are just as guilty for allowing such a fraud act. He still can and should be taken to trial and with a felony he just might not be able to be a funeral director. Hope he gets that address corrected fast because I will be calling the state. This is one greedy SOB that will lie about anything. Sure glad he will not handle my funeral. Key West stinks with the amount of corruption. It is not over yet and will be a huge price to pay for all that helped him pull this off. He is only after power and money. And now his homestead might be at risk. A husband and wife can only homestead 1 property. Are the people really this stupid to believe where he really lives ? Best be seeing where his wife votes too.
It is possible that Mr. Dean violated F.S. 112.313(6) Misuse of Public Position by using his influence to secure a special privilege, benefit or exemption for himself.
To avoid the appearance of any possible impropriety canvassing board member Lopez should have recused himself.
Dean’s position on the Housing Authority Board directly impacts Commissioner Lopez’s constituents may have influenced his vote.
Quid Pro Que, Commissioner Lopez now may have undue influence on the Housing Authority decisions effecting his district.
To avoid the appearance of any possible impropriety Housing Authority Board member Dean should now recuse himself from any decision effecting Commissioner Lopez’s district.
You can’t have it both ways, we do not live in a vacuum..
I predict, At some point in time the Bubba’s are going to get tired of all the attention that Dean is bringing to their antics and will bench him like they did Randy Acevedo. He will reincarnate himself and show up on some ambiguous board five years from now.
Good points.
Well at least the County benefits from this. He will have to pay back property taxes, since his homestead exemption expired in 2004 when he changed his residence to Key West. Obviously his domicile is still Key Haven, but I guess that doesn’t matter. I hope the Monroe County Assessor sees this so they can start figuring his new tax bill on his property. What precedence does this make? If anyone owns property in Key West, you can vote in Key West elections, now.
The property appraiser’s office told us Homestead exemption is not affected because his wife owns the home in Key Haven as well and she is not claiming to live elsewhere.
Check Halloween’s comments below at 8:10 pm Oct 9th.
Does the County Appraiser also have special rules for Dean?
I would request to see the homestead paperwork and not take anyone’s word. Chances are Dean had signed and his wife did not.
I especially liked the new “Jimmy Weekley 24 Hour Rule” that essentially states wherever you lived during the 24 hours before voting qualifies as your permanent residence.
I would comment further but first I need to clean my stomach contents off of my keyboard!
Oh, my, how funny! A cow is a pig, if you call it a pig. That it still looks and moos like a cow is irrelevant. It intends to be a pig, so it is a pig.
Jimmy Weekley, Clayton Lopez and Cheryl Smith look in the video like they wish they are somewhere else, like, never were born; like they are bought and paid for, indentured servants, slaves.
Dean, the Machine, don’t look too smooth in the video, either. I hope he gets lots of good nights’ sleep in the Bahama Street apartment; he looks really tired in the video, needs lots of rest.
I look forward to State Attorney investigator Chris Webber and Assistant State Attorney Mark Wilson’s report this time next month report, itemizing the results of their round the clock surveillance of Dean the Machine’s Bahama Street home : the number of nights the lights were on and he was seen in the apartment; the number of times his car was seen parked there; the water usage in the apartment for that month.
And the same report for the next month.
And the same report for the next month.
For many months, the same report.
Until the next State Attorney election, which is next year.
Maybe some day, we will have a real State Attorney.
Maybe some day, we will have real canvassing board officials.
Maybe some day, pigs will fly.
What went down today, folks, is business as usual. Don’t get strung out about it. It’s comedy. It’s supposed to make you laugh. Otherwise, you might get sick, develop ulcers, have a stroke, die.
That’s what Dean the Machine and his lawyer, Michael Halpern, kinda look like in the video: sick to death. Irony, Dean’ s business is a mortuary.
Yea Colby, but the evidence CLEARLY shows he has not lived in Key West for many years. This is so obvious and blatant and so so illegal. If nothing is done about this than Key West will be completely doomed.
Weekly and Lopez were shameless cowards , and watch Cheri Smith go along with her bosses if she knows what’s good for her. Poor woman, you can see it on her face that she’s weighing doing the right thing and voting against this sham. This board MIGHT have had a little credibility if it had not been unanimous, but you can see here corrupted politicians at their worst. Sleep well- until the next chapters unfold ,because it’s probably not over.
@ “because it probably not over” – Unfortunately Dean’s arrogance will only serve to insight more citizens to rise up, again, again and again.
A lot of people have lost faith in the FKAA board and Monroe county politicians for good reason. Over and over the audacity and privilege they
display with access to information, social media, the press is dumbfounding.
They are confident that the public will forget about the current scandal in six months and sadly, in most cases they are right.
All you have to do is look at Randy Acevedo, a jury found him guilty of “official misconduct” three felonies of abating his wife’s theft of public funds and he went to jail. His wife Monique was sentenced to 8 years in state prison, 22 years probation and to repay the $413,000 that she stole.
If someone brings up the fact that Monique bought lingerie might be interesting to talk about. Nobody wants to talk about the teachers who didn’t get a cost of living adjustment and had to take furlough days. It is distasteful to mention that they bought their son Wade $10,000 worth of video equipment for his business (Genetic Productions) with tax payer money.
Randy now works in the IT department at the FKAA with access to our public records like meter data, billing & payment information and well as employee personal files.
Anyone who brings up the past is quickly shut down or dismissed with accusations of “trudging up the past” or being “vindictive” or a sore loser.
Reviewing only the scandals in Monroe County over the last ten years would be too depressing. That is what those in power are hoping for, humans in general don’t like to be depressed, so they forget about things that make them feel bad.
I’m one of those who feel the frustration that justice did not prevail this time. I hope that the State Attorney, Voter Fraud Division of the Division of Elections, or the Attorney General were watching and will not let this just fade away like the many scandals before it.
Most importantly I want to acknowledge the effort of those like Colby Fisher, Cara Higgins, Chris Weber, and Catherine Vogel. If it wasn’t for their willingness to stand up to the oligarchs with seemingly no chance to win we would not even know about this atrocity.
Thank you, and I hope that they don’t give up.
This about FBI chasing corruption or chasing allege robber with gun, from FBI web site:
———————————————————————————————————–
https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/corruption
It’s our top priority among criminal investigations—and for good reason.
Public corruption poses a fundamental threat to our national security and way of life. It impacts everything from how well our borders are secured and our neighborhoods protected…to verdicts handed down in courts…to the quality of our roads, schools, and other government services. And it takes a significant toll on our pocketbooks, wasting billions in tax dollars every year.
The FBI is singularly situated to combat this corruption, with the skills and capabilities to run complex undercover operations and surveillance.
https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/faqs
Where is the FBI’s authority written down?
The FBI has a range of legal authorities that enable it to investigate federal crimes and threats to national security, as well as to gather intelligence and assist other law enforcement agencies.
[………]A request by an appropriate state official is required before the FBI has authority to investigate these matters. [……………….]
===============================================================
https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/faqs
If an individual is being sought by local police for committing a crime, what assistance can the FBI render to locate the fugitive?
A “stop” will be placed against the fugitive’s fingerprints in the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services Division. Local police will be notified immediately upon the receipt of any additional fingerprints of the fugitive. The fugitive’s name and identifying data also will be entered into the National Crime Information Center, a computerized database that is accessible to law enforcement agencies nationwide. Any agency that inquires about this individual will be informed of his or her fugitive status. In addition, the FBI may obtain a federal arrest warrant and attempt to locate an individual who flees prosecution or confinement if there is reason to believe the person has traveled across a state line or left the country.
So what state official ask FBI to chase robber with gun? Nd why FBI never investigate KW corruption?
That was a disgraceful display. There was not a smidgen of honor on the Board. Is this aiding and abetting fraud? I think so.
Kudos again to Cara Higgins who told it like it is. That is a bright and courageous woman.
Homestead fraud? Nothing like voter fraud. Nothing like drivers license fraud. It is just a penalty tacked on to your back taxes- no big deal when you have the big bucks. And it’s only the tax on the $50k homestead exemption, not the tax on the million dollar home that Dean’s wife supposedly lives alone in, while he lives alone in the 300 sq ft efficiency in KW and never showers, and saves that one change of clothes for a rainy day. So will the tax value of the Key Haven home be reassessed retroactively to eliminate the benefit of the inflation protection afforded to homesteads? The assessment is something like $685k on a “just market value” of over a million.
I have a senior friend who put her daughter on her deed as a “joint tenant” to avoid probate if she dies. The daughter lives elsewhere. My friend was denied homestead because one of the names on the deed was not a full time resident. Paying taxes on an extra $50k is a lot bigger deal for her.
So does the bubba Canvassing Board overrule the State Attorney as to Dean’s residence qualification to sit on two Boards?
Sad, I feel embarrassed and ashamed for Weekley and Lopez. God only knows what skeletons are in their closet that they were willing to look the other way in the presence of someone so obviously committing a felony.
With the preponderance of evidence and logic indicating he lives in Key Haven they were able to somehow justify his assertion that he lives in Key West. The next election cycle will hopefully remove them but they will have to live with today’s decision for the rest of their life.
What happened today was an affront to the American way of life and what our country stands for. The canvassing board was willing to make a mockery of the system that makes us different than oligarchies. Uncle Sam certainly took a hard one to the chin today.
This whole situation reminds me of a statement former President Clinton made during his deposition “It depends on what your definition of ‘is’ is.” ?
In Mr. Dean’s case it centers around what your definition of ‘intent’ is. If you break the law but it wasn’t your intention was the law really broken?
I feel worse for Mr. Dean and the legacy that he will leave his family. The actions taken today by the canvassing board will only strengthen the resolve of those who have called for his head. He may feel vindicated today but at what cost?
In the end we should all feel sad, Sad because of this shameful public display of our government at its worse.
I suppose “ignorance of the law is no excuse” only applies to the rest of us? Like the guy who didn’t realize that hogfish were suddenly illegal for a recreational fisherman outside the reef line. It’s not like FWC sent him an email. Dean knows what he’s doing, but doesn’t care. What were his words? “I’ve been vindicated again.”? And again, and again.
Will our State Attorney call in the FBI to break up the bubba racket and the general fraud, intimidation and extortion apparent at FKAA or just shrug?
My vote for Dennis Ward was decided when I witnessed a sturdy woman working from an unmarked Sheriff’s Department car (with the yellow license plate & star, and hubcaps instead of wheel covers) driving along US1 and removing Ward’s campaign signs from amongst others and putting them in the car trunk. Although there were none behind her and plenty in front of her, there was not one single Ward sign left on US1 when I drove back about an hour later. That’s your tax dollars at work.
I hope Catherine Vogel comes through and dutifully does her job effectively. According to a Miami Herald article, she defended Acevedo against Ward. Maybe that was just another client. http://miami.cbslocal.com/2012/08/14/monroe-county-state-attorney-ousted/
Wii said I C U. above. I think every public official and ever citizen of the County should decry what just went down go on the record – and make sure it gets fixed and doesn’t happen again. Or it will.
Weekly said it was the hardest decision of his career and I believe him because he knew he was wrong,as we all can plainly see on the video. Lopez seems to have gone along more out of weaknesses. Pitiful.
Key West and corruption are synonymous. If something as public and blatantly obvious as Dean’s lies are ignored, imagine the degree of corruption on other matters.
Disgusting. Shameful. Banal.
Excerpt from the report in today’s Key West Citizen:
“The canvassing board unanimously agreed that Dean’s ballot could be counted. The board based its opinion on the fact that the State Attorney’s Office and then Monroe County Supervisor of Elections Harry Sawyer investigated a similar complaint in 2009 and ruled the Bahama Street apartment is Dean’s primary residence and he was eligible to vote in city elections.”
This is lame. Either Dean was living at the Bahama Street address, or he wasn’t, or he is living there, or he isn’t. That’s the test of residence, isn’t it? Well, perhaps not in Key West. In Key West, it seems, you live where you intend to live, even if you don’t live there.
Excerpt from the Citizen report:
“Vindicated again,” Dean said after the canvassing board hearing. “This is my home. My wife’s family has owned that property for 100 years.”
The ownership of the property is not, never has been, disputed. Do you live in that house today, Mr. Dean? Did you live in that house in 2015? In 2014? In 2013? In 2012? In the years going back, including 2009? Did you live in that house when the Supervisor of Elections, Harry Sawyer, and the State Attorney, Dennis Ward, determined in 2009 that you lived in that house? Did you sleep nights in that house, regularly? Did you watch TV at night in that house, regularly? Did you eat meals in that house, regularly? Did you bathe and use the toilet in that house, regularly? All the evidence I have seen is that you did not. All the evidence I have seen is that you lived in your and your wife’s Key Haven house, but you said you lived in the Bahama Street house, and you did not tell the truth about that, and that is voter fraud, it is a felony, and you will get away with it, if State Attorney Vogel decides to let you get away with it. I suppose the people of Key West should thank you, Mr. Dean, for vindicating to them that you had State Attorneys Mark Kohl and Dennis Ward, and Supervisors of Election Harry Sawyer and Joyce Griffin, and the Canvassing Board, City Commissioners Jimmy Weekley and Clayton Lopez and City Clerk Cheri Smith, in your pocket. The jury may still be out on whether you have State Attorney Vogel in your pocket. Meanwhile, Mr. Dean, in the court of public opinion and in God’s court, you and your accomplices are convicted and have been sentenced, and now the nature of that sentence will reveal and vindicate itself in due course.
Q. For all of us “regular folk” how would this have played out if we were accused of the same digressions as J Robert Dean?
A. We would have been immediately arrested, taken to jail and charged with the crimes. We would currently find ourselves out on bail, hiring an attorney and dealing with court dates. We would be forced to defend our actions in a court of law.
It is amazing to see the law applied differently to those with influence vs. the average citizen.
How bad does it have to get before higher powers step in and save us from this dirty business.
And to make matters worse…. it seems that all of our elected officials are total silent on this issue as well. Perhaps I have missed it but has a single elected official come out and said “this is unacceptable”?
The very fact that he just changed his driver license proves that he changed address. He also best change car registration too. What kind of creep is he ? But then with such an occupation maybe it is clear. Will we ever see corruption go away in Key West?
This man will falsify any papers to get what he wants. Is this the type of man the voters want ?
Lets all flood the voter violator link. Thousands should do the trick. Lets get him as much attention as we can in the news.
Would you feel safe with such a man overseeing your casket and contents? He is scum that can’t ever be trusted. Just how old is he ? Are some people that I enjoy hearing died.
Only thing this has done is take attention off of the Eimers murder.
My guess is KW does not check residency of voters. Rent a motel room for a night and register. That would be longer than he did.
What Commissioner Jimmy Weekley actually said at the canvassing board meeting was “if you spend the night before the election you are eligible to vote”. Sometimes the truth can be stranger than fiction.
The Tourist Development Council should advertise come visit spend a night and register to vote.
colby
down is up…left is right…night is day…north is south…good is bad…bondage is freedom…so say George orwell. wow seems we’re living in the 1984 world of orwell.
weekly let us remember was one of the ‘grind them into the dirt’ mobsters back in 1995-6 and thru his direct political efforts as a commissioner of that period cost the city of key west $8M dollars in the duck’s case.
weekly was mayor when the jury in 2005 awarded duck tours $13M against the city and the case was appealed and the 3rd dca came back finding ‘no merit’ to the 9 arguments of law and fact of the city’s establishing a big win for the ducks irrespective of ruling another trial strictly on damages only.
weekly said to the newspapers of that time he would do EXACTLY the same as he did before in the duck’s case! now that’s just plain dumb stupid arrogance with a capital A.
now we see him doing the corrupt ‘weekly dance’. he was corrupt then and is corrupt now.
he needs be banned from politics forever by voting him out of everything the public can vote on. he is a complete and total disgrace!
as for lopez I am deeply disappointed. always thought he had more backbone. city clerk I know not but sure leaves some to be desired.
ugh! canvassing board needs be re-named the candyass board.
What a sham!!! It sure is good to be a bubba on this island. The fact that there has been less than 100 gallons of water used in 20 months at the Bahama Street address should have been enough to determine Dean doesn’t live there. Hell, if he does live there he obviously never bathes or showers. No one could stand to be in the same room with him. Instead the odor was coming from the three dipshits who allowed his vote to count. Nothing that happens on this island surprises me any longer. The land of the Teflon Bubbas.
“Hell, if he does live there he obviously never bathes or showers.” Or pees or poops.
At least Teflon Don got charges. Dean dont get charges because SA Vogel is corrupt, FDLE is corrupt, FBI is corrupt. They’re all corrupt.
A friend in Nashville, with whom I shared the blue paper articles on Dean the Machine, wrote to me today, “Thanks for the report on the canvassing board decision. Just so happens that I found a picture which describes them.” The photo was of a man in shirt and tie, with his head stuck way up where the sun never shines. He continued, “He continued, “I mean REALLY, even Andy and Barney have it figured out!” A photo of Andy Griffiths and his sidekick deputy Barney saying, “What if there is no conspiracy and our government really is that stupid?”
I replied to my Nashville friend:
Well I can’t argue with your diagnosis, even though “they”, I imagine, are convinced “we” are that stupid, and “we” are conspiracy nuts. I wuz just a bit ago lying on the bed after taking a nap, thinking what just went down with Dean the Machine indeed does reveal the true nature of the indigenous Key West psyche, but it’s actually worse than you and I have stated. What it is is difficult for me to discuss with most people I call friends, because I have few friends who attend church regularly. Regular church goers tend to be well aware of demons and demonic possession, although not in the sense they have anything to do with it, other than they know about it. What, however, was just witnessed in the Key West Canvassing Board meeting, especially in the three board members, 2 city commissioners and the city clerk, and their syth master sitting in the audience, that would be Dean the Machine, whose “order” utilizes the dark side of the Force, is the real Key West psyche. So, yes, and despite the New Age saying Evil and demons do not even exist, the same are alive and well and in control of Key West, and have been perhaps since the first member of their order and his black slaves reached Key West, whenever that was. For what “we” witnessed at the canvassing board meeting, was a master and his slaves, whose bidding they obediently did, even though it was clear in the video shot by Arnaud Girard, their souls were still trying to come over to the light side of the Force, but not trying hard enough. Obi Wan Kenobe and Yoda watched on, sadly shaking their heads, wondering if anyone in Key West really saw what really was going on? Saw it enough to know what it was, is. Well it’s all poetry, the good, the bad, the beautiful, and the ugly, and the newest “Starwars” movie is due for December release, “The Birth of the Force”, I believe it’s called. Bodacious, a movie about the birth of God? Ooops, sorry, I know many people are highly allergic to that word, God; they manifest all sorts of squirmings when they hear that word, even church goers squirm, has been my observation, when confronted with something about God in their bibles which does not agree with their syth nature. So, here we are in melting pot, or is it devil’s cauldron Key West, stewing and simmering, squirming and Phariseeing, as the syth machine beat rolls on, as it was in the beginning, it was now and ever shall be, without end – or maybe the church goers are right, there will be a second coming, and, eventually, the syth machine will be dismantled, broken down into molecules, disbanded. Meanwhile, your two pics probably tell it as well as it can be told, if you can’t see syths and their slaves operating in plain view.
Ciao maim,
Sloan
What has transpired in Key West is in my mind an ongoing RICO act.
You have the Bubbas in charge blatantly snubbing their noses at any kind of authority. If twenty citizens were to create petitions with thousands of signatures demanding that the U S Attorney in southern Florida pursue the prosecution and conviction of all elected or nominated individuals involved in purposefully violating the rights of all represented citizens the national newspapers would pick up on and roast the Bubbas. .Call it the First Annual Roast the Bubbas Event.
It certainly looks like the RICO Act could easily be used for prosecution. The evidence is overwhelming and it would be interesting to break down this bubba system and hear about who has what on whom.
The right man won and will continue to win JUST LIKE I SAID BEFORE…… all of you can feel some type of way if you want to but at the end of the day, Bob Dean will always win because he’s not only RESPECTED in Key West but he’s LOVED by many!!!!!
Thanks 🙂
This just proves that with enough money you can buy votes. And when in KW for FF maybe I will register to vote. For 10 days we will be paying rent. And could spend the night before in a motel just to keep it legal. Bet we use more water than Dean.
My thinking is you just might have a hell of a lot of mail in ballets for a reason. Will anyone have the time to investigate every registered voter ?
“The people who cast the votes don’t decide an election, the people who count the votes do.” – Joseph Stalin
Very true. The fox is guarding the hen house.