Judge Bronwyn Miller, a judge on Miami’s 3rd District Court of Appeal. A state oversight panel found her texts ‘appear to be coercive’ and questioned her impartiality.
Courtesy Third District Court of Appeal
A state oversight panel found probable cause to bring formal disciplinary charges against a Miami-Dade judge in an investigation that began after the Miami Herald published her text messages denigrating a fellow judge and pressuring Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle about one of Miami’s biggest criminal cases.
The 22-page document outlining the allegations and charges against Judge Bronwyn Miller, a former prosecutor and current judge on Miami’s 3rd District Court of Appeal, was filed Thursday evening with the Florida Supreme Court.
“Your communications cast reasonable doubt on your capacity to act impartially as a judge, undermine your appearance of integrity and impartiality, demean the judicial office, interfere with your proper performance of judicial duties, may lead to your frequent disqualification, and appear to be coercive,” the Florida Judicial Qualifications Commission said.
The commission investigates allegations of judicial misconduct in Florida, and the state Supreme Court will ultimately decide whether Miller will be sanctioned. She could face penalties ranging from a reprimand to being removed from the bench.
Miller’s attorney Warren Lindsey said Saturday in a statement to the Herald: “Judge Bronwyn Miller has served this community in an exemplary, respected, and ethical manner for more than twenty-eight years, including over twenty years as a judge. …. A public servant does not surrender her First Amendment right to speak with an official on an issue of grave importance both to her safety and the safety of her community. We are hopeful that Judge Miller will be vindicated when given her day in court.”
Hundreds of text messages to state attorney
The investigation focused on Miller’s hundreds of text messages to Fernandez Rundle while Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Andrea Ricker Wolfson was presiding over hearings last year for the death penalty resentencing of Corey Smith. Smith, the reputed leader of Miami’s John Doe gang, had been sentenced to death after being convicted of murdering four people in Liberty City in the 1990s.
Corey Smith Corey Smith Florida Department of Corrections
The Miami Herald obtained Miller’s text messages with Fernandez Rundle in public records requests and published them in an online article on Nov. 10, 2024. Three days later, on Nov. 13, Miller reported herself to the commission through her attorney, the filing says.
Prosecutors ultimately dropped the death penalty, and Smith was resentenced to 30 years in a plea deal in February after Wolfson removed two prosecutors from the case, citing misconduct. Smith’s defense attorneys accused prosecutors of coaching witnesses’ testimonies and speaking to a convicted murdered in a recorded jail call about a difficult witness.
Miller, who years earlier had been the prosecutor in Fernandez Rundle’s office that secured Smith’s convictions and death sentence, indicated in the text messages to Fernandez Rundle she was trying to protect her reputation, which she felt was tarnished during the proceedings.
Miller’s participation in the resentencing phase of the Smith case, the filing says, should have ended once she testified in a hearing about a memo she wrote during Smith’s murder trial. Defense attorneys uncovered the document, which said during briefings at Miami Police headquarters, witnesses were given “favors” like food, beverages and Black & Mild cigars.
“At that point, unless further fact issues pertaining to you arose, your participation should have ended, leaving the handling of the post-conviction litigation to the State Attorney’s Office,” the judicial commission’s filing said.
However, Miller continued to text Fernandez Rundle about the prosecution and criticized Wolfson, who was assigned to the case, according to the document.
“I think you should disqualify her,” Miller wrote to Fernandez Rundle on April 6, 2024. “Then all rulings can be reconsidered.”
Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Andrea Wolfson Jose A. Iglesias jiglesias@elnuevoherald.com
When reached Friday, a Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office spokesperson said Fernandez Rundle will not comment, saying the judicial commission’s probe was “an ongoing legal matter.”
Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle Alie Skowronski askowronski@miamiherald.com
Miller again texted Fernandez Rundle later that April, when the 3rd District Court of Appeal was reviewing the case. Miller recused herself but read a filing and asked that Fernandez Rundle “call [her] immediately,” according to text messages obtained by the Herald.
Miller criticized the state attorney’s filing, which referred to “potential favors provided to witnesses” back when Miller was the prosecutor on the case, and told Fernandez Rundle, “there is a huge factual error in it,” according to the texts.
Miller told the judicial commission those texts to Fernandez Rundle were “necessary to correct erroneous factual representations about [her] witness testimony,” the filing says.
In another text that July, Miller took aim at Michael Von Zamft — one of the prosecutors Wolfson ousted from the Smith case. Miller pointed out that Von Zamft is a former defense attorney.
“They play by different rules,” Miller wrote. “No defense attorney should be training [assistant state attorneys]. It should be someone who knows that prosecutors are held to higher ethics.”
As an appellate court judge, Miller reviews appeals filed by criminal defense attorneys.
In a statement to the commission, Miller said the message about the defense Bar “merely highlighted well-established differences between the ethical obligations of prosecutors and defense attorneys, expressed concern about Mr. Von Zamft’s inability to divine that difference, and was not intended to denigrate criminal defense lawyers generally.”
When prosecutors decided to waive the death penalty against Smith, Miller again texted Fernandez Rundle: “More tanking of a case where nobody did anything wrong. Unbelievable Hope you have a great weekend.”
Miller, according to the filing, stopped messaging Fernandez Rundle after the Herald published the texts.
In the judicial commission’s filing, Special Counsel Henry M. Coxe III wrote that Miller’s communications with Fernandez Rundle could be interpreted to be “coercive towards her official acts and substantially interfered with a fair trial or hearing.”
Miller can file a written answer to the commission’s charges within 20 days.
After Miller successfully prosecuted Smith, then-Gov. Rick Scott appointed her to the 3rd District Court of Appeal in 2018.
The University of Miami law school graduate was a relatively young prosecutor in 2004 when she was chosen to lead a team to prosecute Smith — who was ultimately convicted of the murders of six people, mostly associated with gang activity and drug trade.
Miami Herald staff writer Brittany Wallman contributed to this report
This story was originally published October 25, 2025 at 1:51 PM.
Grethel covers courts and the criminal justice system for the Miami Herald. She graduated from the University of Florida (Go Gators!), speaks Spanish and Arabic and loves animals, traveling, basketball and good storytelling. Grethel also attends law school part time.
PORTLAND/MIAMI: Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier are among more than 30 people charged in connection with illegal sports betting and rigged poker games tied to organized crime, authorities said on October 23.
According to federal prosecutors, Rozier and others were part of a sports betting scheme that used insider NBA information, while Billups is accused in a separate case involving poker games backed by Mafia families.
The indictment lists nine unnamed co-conspirators, including a Florida-based NBA player, an Oregon resident who played in the league between 1997 and 2014 and became a coach in 2021, and a relative of Rozier.
Both men are well-known in the basketball world. Billups, a five-time NBA All-Star and Hall of Fame inductee, became Portland’s head coach in 2021 and signed a multi-year extension this year. Rozier, drafted in 2015, has played for Boston, Charlotte, and Miami.
Prosecutors allege Rozier and others used private information — such as player injuries or team strategies — to place or assist in bets that could affect the outcome of NBA games. In return, they allegedly received payments or a share of profits.
New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said players sometimes altered their performance or left games early to influence bets. In one case, Rozier allegedly told others he would leave a game with a “fake injury” while playing for the Charlotte Hornets, helping his associates win thousands of dollars in wagers.
U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. called the operation “one of the most brazen sports corruption schemes since sports betting became legal in much of the U.S.” Six people were accused of a betting conspiracy, which authorities say relied on confidential NBA information to profit illegally.
The second case involves 31 defendants accused of running a nationwide network of underground poker games, mainly in the New York area. Prosecutors say the games were fixed using hidden technology that allowed players to cheat victims out of millions of dollars. Mafia families and former professional athletes allegedly supported the poker network.
Attorney Jim Trusty, representing Rozier, criticized the arrest, saying his client had cooperated with prosecutors. “Instead of allowing him to surrender, they staged a photo op,” he said, calling the arrest a “public embarrassment.”
Federal investigators said the cases involve “tens of millions of dollars” in fraud, theft, and crypto-related schemes. “Everyone will be held accountable,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Raj Patel.
Authorities confirmed that 31 people are in custody, and others are expected to surrender in the coming days.
The family of an 11-year-old girl is suing the Coconut Grove Sailing Club, which hosted a summer camp where the child was run over by a boat operated by a counselor on July 10, 2025.
Miami Herald
The parents of a girl who nearly lost leg while participating in a summer sailing club is suing the club — and counselors — over an incident that occurred days before a barge hit a sailboat full of summer campers off Miami Beach.
Bolivar Viteri and Michelle Viteri, the parents of 11-year-old Catherine Viteri, are seeking $10 million in damages, according to a lawsuit filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court on Monday.
The suit alleges that the Coconut Grove Sailing Club and three camp counselors were negligent and failed to supervise the children, causing Catherine a lifelong disability.
During a July 10 incident, Catherine was run over by a motorboat operated by a 21-year-old counselor, while she was swimming, court documents allege. Catherine’s right leg was lacerated to the bone and nearly amputated by a propeller.
The counselor ran Catherine over, the complaint states, after losing track of the summer campers under his care. The two other counselors were also supervising the children.
“This case represents an inexcusable breakdown in the safety and supervision of children,” attorney Justin B. Shapiro said in a statement. “It is unthinkable that the camp counselor who was in charge of protecting this child is the one who ran her over with a motorboat. The extent of negligence in this case is extraordinary, and we intend to hold the responsible parties fully accountable.”
The sailing club could not immediately be reached for comment. Information on the club’s legal representation and that of the counselors, was not immediately available.
The accident was one of two major incidents over the summer when disaster struck at a youth sailing camp.
Eighteen days after Catherine was run over, on July 28, Mila Yankelevich, 7, Erin Victoria Ko Han, 13, and Arielle “Ari” Mazi Buchman, 10, were killed after a 60-foot barge being pushed by a tugboat crashed into a 17-foot Hobie Getaway sailboat with five Miami Yacht Club campers — girls between the ages of 7 and 13 — and one 19-year-old female camp counselor aboard.
The crash happened between Hibiscus and Monument islands in Biscayne Bay. The U.S. Coast Guard is the lead agency investigating the incident since it involved a commercial vessel.
The family of a 9-year-old girl who was injured in the collision filed a lawsuit in August against the owner of the barge and tug, the Miami Yacht Club, and the club’s Youth Sailing Foundation.
The lawsuit argues the camp knew or should have known of the “unreasonable risk of injury and/or death” when it took the children on a sailing excursion on Biscayne Bay.
The complaint also states the pilot of the tug was operating the vessel recklessly and should have had a lookout on the bow of the barge knowing he was navigating through waters regularly packed with recreational boaters.
Grethel covers courts and the criminal justice system for the Miami Herald. She graduated from the University of Florida (Go Gators!), speaks Spanish and Arabic and loves animals, traveling, basketball and good storytelling. Grethel also attends law school part time.
Miami Commissioner Ralph Rosado urges voters to approve a ballot measure this Nov. 4 creating a charter review commission that meets every decade to make changes to the city’s governing document.
Pedro Portal
pportal@miamiherald.com
Every decade, the U.S. Census tells us who we are and how we’ve changed.
It shows how our neighborhoods have grown, how our demographics have shifted and how our needs as a city have evolved. But while we regularly update our data, we rarely update the document that defines how we govern ourselves — the city charter. That needs to change. This November, Miami voters will have the chance to approve a ballot measure that requires the creation of a charter review commission every 10 years.
It’s a simple idea rooted in good governance: once every decade, the city will convene a group of residents — qualified electors from across our neighborhoods — to take a thoughtful look at our charter, engage the public and recommend improvements to ensure our government remains accountable, transparent and responsive to the people it serves. Miami is not the same city it was 50, 20 or even 10 years ago. We’ve seen new residents, new industries, new environmental realities and new expectations of what local government should be.
Yet our charter — the “constitution” of our city — doesn’t undergo a regular and comprehensive review. That means many of its provisions reflect a Miami of the past, not the Miami of today.
Creating a recurring charter review commission ensures we never fall behind on our progress. It provides a built-in mechanism to modernize our structure of government as the city grows — without waiting for a crisis or controversy to spark reform. This is how strong, self-aware cities govern themselves. This isn’t a new or radical idea. Across Miami-Dade County and throughout Florida and the U.S., cities have long relied on recurring charter review committees.
These panels give residents a formal seat at the table to assess how their local government is working and whether the charter still meets community needs. Citizen committees can improve coordination, transparency and accountability. When done right, this process gives the public voice structure, purpose and follow-through. Government should never be afraid of review — in fact, the healthiest governments invite it. By writing this requirement directly into our charter, we’re hard-wiring accountability into our civic DNA.
Every ten years — after each federal census — Miami will take stock of its own structure, invite residents to weigh in and issue a public report with recommendations. An open, deliberate process led by the people themselves. This isn’t about politics — it’s about stewardship. We owe it to future generations to leave behind a government that grows, learns and improves with time. On Nov. 4, you’ll see this question on your ballot: “Shall the City Charter be amended to establish a Charter Review Commission and require the City Commission, within one year after each federal decennial census, to appoint a Charter Review Commission of qualified electors of the City to review the City Charter, hold public hearings for community input and recommend Charter amendments to the City Commission?” A “Yes” vote means Miami commits to regular self-reflection and improvement. It means residents will always have a formal role in shaping how their city operates. And it means our government will never grow too disconnected from the people it serves. Let’s make sure our city’s charter evolves with us. On Nov. 4, vote “Yes” for a charter review commission.
Vote “Yes” for transparency, accountability and a government that learns. Ralph Rosado is a city of Miami Commissioner who represents District 4.
A New Jersey man recounts his scary turbulence experience when he had to fly from Miami during a storm. Viewers react to how he coped with the hellish flight and other anxious passengers.
In a video with around 10,000 views, TikToker Mike Panettiere (@mikepanettiere) sits in his car as he recounts the “flight from hell” from Miami to New Jersey. He says he originally planned to fly out a day later but was hoping to catch an earlier flight to miss a storm in New Jersey.
“I get a text that the flight was delayed an hour and a half,” he says. “No big deal.”
He heads to the airport in an Uber and decides to “garden,” TikTok slang for using marijuana, to ease his nerves before the flight.
Panettiere gets a text while going through security that his flight is delayed even longer. In that moment, he realizes his edible will “hit” before he boards the flight.
When he gets to the gate, an agent announces over the loudspeaker that the flight may be canceled. He calls his mom, who was going to pick him up in New Jersey, to let her know the flight may not go out.
“[She says], ‘What? What do you mean? What are we gonna do? You’re gonna have to stay till Tuesday,”” he recounts dramatically. “Now my stress and cortisol levels are through the roof.”
Luckily, a short time later, the agent announces that the flight will leave at 7:30 p.m.
Panettiere continues that other passengers began freaking out as they boarded the plane. One couple begs the flight attendant to let them sit together, as the wife has severe flight anxiety. He watches the couple switch seats with other passengers to sit next to each other.
Then, the pilot makes an announcement that they expect severe turbulence about one hour into the flight.
Is it safe to fly in a storm?
He says the first hour of the flight was smooth, but the turbulence intensified in the second hour of the flight.
“I kid you not, the plan was going like this,” he says, making wave motions with his arm. “And I am bugging out.”
While turbulence can be disturbing for passengers, it’s generally fine to fly during a storm, according to the BBC. In fact, pilots are trained to perform special maneuvers that make flying with turbulence safe. Should a severe storm impact flying conditions, the flight may be canceled.
Panettiere says his heart rate was so fast during the turbulence, getting a reading of 170 beats per minute on his watch.
He says the woman with anxiety starts screaming as the turbulence worsens, leading other passengers to begin freaking out, too.
“So now I’m hearing this and I’m bugging out,” he says. “She’s stressing me out to the max.”
He says the turbulence only lasted 10 to 15 minutes, but it felt like “two and a half to three hours.”
“I’ve never been on a plane where the turbulence is that bad,” he remarks at the end of the clip. “I recommend not gardening before a flight.”
How did viewers react to his flight story?
In the comments, viewers joke about his chaotic flight saga.
“I’m sorry but as a flight attendant myself…I am crying laughing at this story,” one says.
“I’m laughing so hard i work over nites shifts this made my nite lol sorry though this happen to u,” another comments.
Others share their own scary turbulence experiences.
“Miami to jersey is a different flight. I was sick MULTIPLE TIMES BACK BC OF TURBULENCE,” a commenter writes.
“My brother, sisinlaw & niece were on a plane from Cincinnati to RI. Turbulence inbound to RI in pitch black. Lightning, thunder, up and down. My niece? 2 rows back screaming: Get me off this plane!!” another shares.
“My scariest flight was alsoooo Miami to nj,” a third adds.
A Florida judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked the planned transfer of prime downtown Miami land for Donald Trump’s future presidential library.
Ruling emphasizes non-political nature
The move by Circuit Judge Mavel Ruiz came after a Miami activist alleged that officials at Miami Dade College violated Florida’s open government law when they gifted the sizable plot of real estate to the state, which then voted to transfer it to the foundation for President Trump’s planned library.
“This is not an easy decision,” Ruiz said Tuesday when explaining her ruling from the bench.
“This is not a case, at least for this court, rooted in politics,” she added.
Valuable property at the heart of dispute
The nearly 3-acre (1.2-hectare) property is a developer’s dream and is valued at more than $67 million, according to a 2025 assessment by the Miami-Dade County property appraiser.
One real estate expert wagered that the parcel—one of the last undeveloped lots on an iconic stretch of palm tree-lined Biscayne Boulevard—could sell for hundreds of millions of dollars more.
Lawsuit alleges violations of open government laws
Marvin Dunn, an activist and chronicler of local Black history, filed a lawsuit this month in a Miami-Dade County court against the Board of Trustees for Miami Dade College, a state-run school that owned the property.
He alleges that the board violated Florida’s Government in the Sunshine law by not providing sufficient notice for its special meeting on Sept. 23, when it voted to give up the land.
A week later, Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Cabinet voted to transfer the land again, effectively putting the property under the control of the Trump family when they deeded it to the foundation for Trump’s library.
The foundation is led by three trustees: Eric Trump, Tiffany Trump’s husband, Michael Boulos, and the president’s attorney James Kiley.
Attorney stresses public’s right to transparency
Richard Brodsky, an attorney for Dunn, said the issue before the court was not a question of politics, but whether the public board followed the open government law.
“The people have a right to know what they’re going to decide to do when the transaction is so significant, so unusual and deprives the students and the college of this land,” Brodsky said.
A group of people attended a protest next to the Freedom Tower, lead by Retired Prof. Marvin A Dunn against giving Miami Dade College property to be used for the Trump presidential library on Monday September 29, 2025.
Pedro Portal
pportal@miamiherald.com
A Miami-Dade Circuit Court judge on Monday declined an activist’s request to immediately block Miami Dade College from officially deeding over downtown land for Donald Trump’s presidential library.
But Judge Mavel Ruiz, presiding over a lawsuit alleging the college violated Florida’s Sunshine law last month when trustees voted to transfer the land to the state, left the door open to temporarily stop the move in the future.
The hearing — the first in the case brought last week by historian Marvin Dunn — was only about whether the college is allowed to proceed with the deed transfer while the case moves forward. Though trustees voted to convey the land to the state last month, as of Monday, the land is still in the college’s possession. Dunn wants Ruiz to issue a temporary injunction to ensure it stays that way.
Without ruling on the fundamental question in the case, Ruiz said Dunn had not yet established the right to sue by showing that he is a Florida citizen. Dunn’s attorneys said he was out of the country on a pre-planned trip and paperwork had not been fully processed due to closures related to the federal holiday.
Former Florida International University professor and historian Marvin Dunn speaks to attendees about the Rosewood Massacre during a “Black History Learning Tree” event at FIU on Tuesday, April 1, 2025, in Miami, Fla. D.A. Varela dvarela@miamiherald.com
The hourlong hearing nevertheless gave new insight into the College’s strategy to fight the allegations that they didn’t properly notify the public about the meeting where the trustees voted to hand over the land.
Miami-Dade College’s Board of Trustees voted without discussion to transfer land adjacent to the Freedom Tower it purchased in 2004 for $25 million to a state board during a Sept. 23 meeting that lasted less than five minutes. Florida’s Board of Trustees of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund — led by the governor and state Cabinet — voted the following week to give the land to Trump’s library foundation.
The college’s attorneys stressed during Monday’s hearing that the college did issue a public notice about its special meeting to “discuss potential real estate transactions.” That notice did not mention a specific parcel of land or the purpose of the transfer, and the college ignored questions from the Miami Herald the day before the meeting about whether the vote was intended to facilitate the construction of Trump’s presidential library.
The true purpose of the vote wasn’t revealed until moments after, when Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced that the land would be used for the library. The president’s son has since announced a plan to build a high-rise on the site.
But the college’s attorneys argued that Florida’s Sunshine law does not require additional details, only the fact of a meeting happening.
“They’re asking your honor to impose a requirement beyond the statutory requirement,” Jesus Suarez, who was representing Miami Dade College, told the judge. “Which is to say that the specificity of the notice was somehow insufficient. … I understand that they’d like that to be the state of the law, but it’s just not there.”
The judge appeared skeptical of their reading of Florida’s Sunshine law throughout the hearing.
“It’s a very narrow issue for the court: Was this reasonable notice? Yes or no,” Ruiz said. “The court would not be ‘making new law.’ It would be rightly or wrongly deciding whether or not the facts and the circumstance constitute reasonable notice.”
She also anticipated a long road ahead for the case. “Thank goodness that there’s a Third District Court of Appeals because this situation makes it a reasonable person of one, it’s what I think,” she said.
Once the college formally hands over the deed, Dunn’s attorneys said it would be more difficult to correct the alleged harm by forcing a new, publicly noticed meeting. In the long run, even if Dunn’s case is successful, the college’s trustees could still hand over the land — it would just force an opportunity for the public to weigh in.
A recent poll by Bendixen & Amandi International found that a large majority of Miami-Dade voters preferred that the college keep the property in its control, rather than give it away to be used for Trump’s presidential library.
“It’s plain that the alienation of such a valuable piece of public property, especially this iconic land, is a matter of great potential public injury,” Dunn’s attorney Andres Rivero argued.
At one point Judge Ruiz, who appeared sympathetic to their case, interrupted Rivero to say, “This is not a case about politics, this is a case about whether the Sunshine law was violated.”
“I couldn’t have said it better myself,” Rivero responded.
Claire Heddles is the Miami Herald’s senior political correspondent. She previously covered national politics and Congress from Washington, D.C at NOTUS. She’s also worked as a public radio reporter covering local government and education in East Tennessee and Jacksonville, Florida.
Activist Dwight C. Wells was killed outside his restaurant, Winning and Won Turkey Legs in Liberty City, on Friday night while playing dominoes, police said.
Mobile Billboard Miami
The mother of anti-violence advocate Dwight C. Wells is speaking out days after her activist son was shot and killed while he was playing dominoes outside his Miami restaurant.
Those who knew the 40-year-old Wells describe him as a God-fearing man who served his community in countless ways. He dedicated his life to helping the city and fought to help kids stay out of trouble through his “Bikes Up, Guns Down” movement, which brings awareness to gun violence in the City of Miami.
Earlier Sunday afternoon, dozens of people on bikes and quads gathered outside Winning And Won Turkey Legs, Wells’ Liberty City restaurant, to honor him.
Wells was well-known in the community for his advocacy against gun violence, often helping families who lost loved ones who were shot and killed across Miami by putting together vigils and community events to spread awareness.
According to Miami Police, Wells was outside his restaurant playing dominoes on Friday night when someone came up and shot him. He was rushed to the Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital, where he died. Police are still searching for the suspect.
CBS News Miami caught up with Wells’ mother earlier Sunday and asked her what her message was to his shooter.
“You just killed a praying woman’s son and you killed a son who prays himself. He loved God, he shared people — he shared God with people everywhere,” said Mary Brown, Wells’ mother. “Listen shooter: When they catch you, I’m coming to court if God allows it. I want to hug you. I want to kiss you if the judge allows it. I want to tell you [that] you should repent for your sins because you have a choice for good or evil.”
There will be a vigil outside of Wells’ restaurant on Thursday night at 7 p.m. to honor his life. Police are asking anyone who knows anything to come forward and tipsters can remain anonymous.
A photo collage featuring Charmaine Gatlin, the former chief operating officer of the Jackson Health Foundation, and her husband Arthur Gatlin, with documents provided to the Herald.
Photo Illustration by Susan Merriam
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Betrayal of Trust
Former Jackson Health Foundation COO Charmaine Gatlin pled guilty to bilking millions in charity funds. A look at the investigation.
Charmaine Gatlin’s job was all about the money.
As the chief operating officer for the Jackson Health Foundation, Gatlin had easy access to millions of donated dollars meant for Miami-Dade County’s only public hospital system — with practically no bosses checking her spending sprees.
In November, Jackson terminated Gatlin for swindling millions of dollars from the Foundation as executives privately reeled over her betrayal of the hospital system’s fundraising arm, which raises tens of millions to benefit Jackson’s patients.
In an audit, Jackson executives discovered the extent of her brazen thievery, including spending tens of thousands of dollars on high-fashion handbags, a membership at a tony golf club for her and her husband she disguised as being for board members, a website, video and brochures to promote her daughter’s Broward traveling softball team, even paying thousands to a barbecue joint in her Georgia hometown for meals the Foundation never got.
And as the case closed in around her, she forged an email from the Foundation’s board chair to pay a Miami vendor listed as a “co-conspirator” in court records more than $70,000, according to Jackson records and her Miami federal court indictment.
The Miami Herald reviewed thousands of pages of documents in this case, from federal court records to public records the Herald obtained through the Foundation and Jackson Health System, including hundreds of Gatlin’s invoices and emails.
Jackson officials alerted federal law enforcement that Gatlin was routinely tapping into Foundation funds to pay vendors from South Florida to Georgia for completely fabricated services. Gatlin paid an Atlanta audiovisual contractor $2 million, who then kicked back $1 million to her, according to court records. The contractor did not do any work for the Foundation or Jackson.
Jackson Health Foundation COO Charmaine Gatlin approved 14 invoices for Foundation board member golf memberships from 2022 through 2023. The invoices, which in total equal $23,880.14, were fraudulent. The Jackson Health Foundation does not provide golf memberships to board members. Michelle Marchante mmarchante@miamiherald.com
Conspicuous among the suspicious transactions: Gatlin approved about $2.9 million in payments for more than a dozen Georgia vendors with no apparent connections to the Foundation – including the Atlanta company that paid her bribes.
Small businesses in her hometown of Riceboro, Georgia – population 935 in 2023, according to the Census – also benefitted from Gatlin’s largesse. A Riceboro barbecue spot billed the Foundation $86,070 between 2018 and mid-2020, bills that Gatlin approved, Jackson records show. The meals were invoiced as food for wellness fairs, family fun days and other Foundation events. The Foundation paid the bills; no one at the Foundation got any barbecue.
Gatlin also used Foundation funds to pay for Apple AirPods, laptops and backpacks for back-to-school events hosted by a Riceboro religious group, which had no links to the Foundation, except Gatlin.
“We strongly believe we have a duty to safeguard our resources and ensure accountability for the misuse of public funds. Jackson Health Foundation is pursuing all legal options against those involved in this carefully orchestrated embezzlement scheme,” Jackson Health CEO Carlos Migoya told the Miami Herald in an emailed statement sent Friday.
Pleads guilty to embezzling millions
Under the Foundation’s bylaws, Gatlin, hired in 2014, had nearly complete authority to approve bills of up to $100,000 without any oversight, allowing her for years to pay an inner circle of vendors for fictitious event services that were never provided to the taxpayer-subsidized Jackson Health System.
Members of the Foundation’s executive committee were so unaware of her fraudulent billing schemes that they complimented Gatlin and her team for their “great work” – eight months before she was fired.
Last November, the month she was fired, the Foundation turned over its analysis of her suspicious payments to the FBI, leading to Gatlin’s arrest in May at her Riceboro home near Savannah. The Herald obtained the analysis through a public records request.
Gatlin, 52, pleaded guilty last month to wire-fraud conspiracy and admitted in Miami federal court that she embezzled at least $4.3 million from the Foundation between 2019 and 2024.
Miami, FL, October 7, 2025 – Copies of invoices submitted to Charmaine Gatlin, COO of Jackson Health Foundation. Jose Iglesias jiglesias@elnuevoherald.com
Prosecutors are likely to argue at her upcoming sentencing that her theft was higher – somewhere between $3.5 million and $9.5 million, according to a plea agreement. They will also ask a federal judge to make Gatlin pay back the Foundation.
Foundation officials said they are still assisting prosecutors in calculating the nonprofit’s loss, and could not provide that figure to the Herald before the government makes its restitution request.
“We will seek to recover every dollar that was stolen from the Foundation, and we look forward to seeing those responsible face the consequences of their actions,” Migoya said in his statement Friday.
Gatlin and her defense lawyer, David Howard, declined to comment for this article as she awaits sentencing in November.
Fake invoices, bilks ‘restricted funds’
Jackson and court records show Gatlin approved hundreds of invoices for services and items that were never provided to the Foundation.
More than 100 times, she bilked “restricted” Foundation funds designated for specific Jackson causes, including $55,000 stipulated for burn patients. Gatlin diverted those funds to a Miami Gardens-based vendor for first-aid kits that were not officially requested by or provided to Jackson, according to her indictment.
The vendor, Darryl Holsendolph, whose company, Holsen Inc., sells merchandise such as T-shirts, bags and water bottles, declined to comment for this article because of the ongoing federal investigation. His defense lawyer, Larry Handfield, also did not comment, citing the same reason.
As one of the Foundation’s top executives, Gatlin managed its daily operations, oversaw fundraising activities and had complete control over spending. Oftentimes, however, unbeknownst to the Foundation, she was doing extensive volunteer work for her former employer, Atlanta-based 100 Black Men of America, while on the clock for the Jackson Health Foundation, according to hundreds of emails reviewed by the Herald.
Gatlin’s indictment highlights her approving more than $2 million in fraudulent Foundation payments to an Atlanta businessman, Yergan Jones, who owns an audiovisual company that provided no services to the nonprofit or Jackson Health System. In August, Jones pleaded guilty to wire-fraud conspiracy, admitting that he collaborated with Gatlin in falsifying bills and kicking back half of his Foundation payments to her.
Yergan Jones, CEO of American Sound Design and AEE Productions LinkedIn screenshot
Both knew each other from their work for 100 Black Men of America, where Gatlin had been an executive before joining the Foundation. The organization, in a statement to the Herald, said it had no knowledge of her fraud scheme at the Foundation or her illicit dealings with Jones.
Pembroke Pines event planner
Jones was not the only one alleged by the feds to be involved in Gatlin’s’s billing schemes.
On May 14, 2024, Gatlin sent a personal email to 100 Black Men of America regarding its annual conference the following month in Atlanta. She said she gave a “45K budget” to Premier Choice Group, a Pembroke Pines event-planning company.
Three days later – around 6 p.m. on May 17 – Gatlin received an email from Premier Choice CEO Shanae Hill. In the email: a $40,257.76 invoice for social media marketing and event photography services.
But Hill’s invoice – cited in Gatlin’s indictment and obtained by the Herald – revealed Premier Choice was not providing services to the Foundation. Rather, the invoice was for the 100 Black Men of America conference in Atlanta.
Nearly 30 minutes later, Hill resubmitted the same invoice to Gatlin. This time, it claimed to be for “Jackson Health Foundation Summer Activations” – a non-existent event.
Gatlin forwarded the invoice to the Foundation’s finance director.
“For processing,” Gatlin wrote.
The Foundation paid Hill’s invoice with a credit card on May 20, 2024, according to Gatlin’s indictment and the Foundation’s invoices.
One of Shanae Hill’s 2022 invoices mentioned in Gatlin’s indictment billed Jackson slightly more than $40,000. The invoice, which the Herald obtained, showed it was initially for the 38th annual 100 Black Men of America conference in Atlanta. Nearly 30 minutes later, Hill resubmitted the same invoice. This time, it claimed to be for “Jackson Health Foundation Summer Activations,” an event that never took place. Michelle Marchante mmarchante@miamiherald.com
A few months later, Gatlin sent a personal email to Hill, saying she “approved” her $4,400 invoice for a “360 photobooth” at the 100 Black Men of America’s annual conference at the Hyatt Regency in Atlanta, according to the indictment.
Days later, Hill sent an invoice with the same charge to the Foundation for a “360 Booth” at Miami Swim Week. The Foundation, which paid the bill, was not part of the popular fashion event.
A spokeswoman for 100 Black Men of America said it did not pay Premier Choice for social media services for its conference last year. Hill did the work as a volunteer, the group said.
Bills nearly $2 million
In total, Hill submitted 122 invoices to the Foundation from 2018 through 2024 through her various companies – Premier Choice Group, Premier Choice Events and Premier Choice Marketing. She charged the Foundation about $1.81 million in total, according to Herald calculations of Gatlin-approved invoices obtained from Jackson.
Because Hill did provide some services to the Foundation, it’s difficult to say how much of that money funded Foundation events or went toward services for others. Gatlin’s indictment alleges the two women collaborated in falsifying invoices; the court record refers to Hill and her business, respectively, as “Co-Conspirator 2” and “Event Planning Company 1.”
A photo of Shanae Hill that appeared in some emails sent to Charmaine Gatlin. The Herald obtained the emails from Jackson through a public record request.
It is not clear how they met, but both Gatlin and Hill certainly crossed paths through their work for 100 Black Men of America. Hill and her defense lawyer, Christopher Lomax, did not respond to Herald email and voice mail requests to comment for this article.
In April, one month before Gatlin was arrested by the FBI on fraud charges, Hill received a “target letter” from the lead federal prosecutor, Elizabeth Young, a court filing shows. Young advised her that she was a “target of a grand jury investigation in the Southern District of Florida involving possible violations of federal criminal law,” related to a wire-fraud probe, according to a copy of the letter filed in court.
Hill has not been charged in the Gatlin case.
Vuitton, Gucci bags
Hill’s business dealings with Gatlin may stand out, but her company’s transactions with the Foundation were not as numerous or as large as those involving Holsendolph, the Miami vendor. He filed 180 invoices for nearly $4 million.
Court and public records show that Holsendolph, a longtime businessman in Miami-Dade, billed the Foundation for millions of dollars in services – including several invoices that prosecutors say were entirely fabricated by Gatlin and him, according to Gatlin’s indictment. The indictment refers to Holsendolph as “Co-Conspirator 3” and Holsen as “Merchandising Company 1.”
Holsendolph has not been charged in the Gatlin case.
Gatlin’s indictment spells out their alleged scheme: She used the Foundation’s money to pay Holsen, his company, and then she would ask Holsendolph to buy her luxury goods through his contacts as a marketing distributor of promotional products and branded goods for events such as the Orange Bowl.
“Gatlin and [Holsendolph] falsified invoices to the Foundation to pay for Gucci, Louis Vuitton, and Apple electronics, including by falsely invoicing the Foundation for items that were never provided to the Foundation or Jackson by [Holsen.], ” the indictment said.
A 2020 file photo of Darryl Holsendolph, the president and CEO of Holsen Inc Event Services, working from his offices in Miami Gardens, Florida. MATIAS J. OCNER mocner@miamiherald.com
Among the purchases with Foundation funds: a Louis Vuitton Coussin PM bag ($4,350) and Helios Wedge Sandals ($1,170). In a Jan. 29, 2024, email to Holsendolph, Gatlin even specified that she wanted him to get the sandals in a size 42 [European] “in the same pattern as the Coussin purse,” according to her indictment.
Two years earlier, court and invoice records show Holsen received $13,975 from the Foundation that Gatlin approved for “items for hospital employee engagement survey.”
The items weren’t for employees; rather, they were for Gatlin.
Among the items: two Apple watches, two iPad Air’s, 2 Fitbits, a Louis Vuitton “on the go” bag, a Gucci “tote bag with leather details,” and a Gucci “Tennis 1977 sneaker” in women’s size 12 [Gatlin’s shoe size], according to an Aug. 29, 2022, email between Gatlin and Holsendolph.
The following month, Gatlin emailed Hosendolph with a link to a Louis Vuitton “loop handbag, stating, “This is the one she wants.” Gatlin didn’t identify the recipient by name.
Concealing laptop purchases
Every year between 2016 and 2024, Gatlin also asked Holsendolph to ship school supplies to one of her family members in Riceboro, according to her indictment. Gatlin’s relative delivered the supplies for yearly back-to-school rallies hosted by Project Reach G.A.N.G., a Riceboro nonprofit affiliated with a church in the area.
Among the supplies, which featured G.A.N.G.’s logo: T-shirts, uniforms, laptops, Apple AirPods, backpacks, paper, markers, pens, water bottles, gift cards, face masks and hand sanitizer – all at the Foundation’s expense. It’s unclear from Holsen’s invoices how much the company paid for these supplies.
“At times, Gatlin made it falsely appear on the Foundation invoices that the items were being used for a back-to-school event at Jackson North Medical Center,” the indictment says. “Gatlin and [Holsendolph] also falsified the invoices for the items provided to [G.A.N.G.] to conceal the purchase of electronics such as laptops.”
A director of Project Reach G.A.N.G did not respond to Herald emails or telephone calls for comment.
Jackson donors stand by Foundation
Miami philanthropists Trish and Dan Bell, who have given millions to different organizations across South Florida, are longtime supporters of the Foundation and are members of the Golden Angel Society, the Foundation’s premier giving group. They recently donated to help Jackson expand its ER into one of the largest in the nation.
On Thursday, the couple told the Herald they hope Gatlin’s arrest does not give anyone pause for supporting the Foundation’s mission to provide care for those in need.
This “fraud, as bad as it was, does not diminish in the least our confidence in the integrity or skills of the senior management of either the Hospital or the Foundation, who we know are still deeply committed to their mission of providing the community with the best health care possible,” the Bells said in a statement to the Herald.
“The only impact this fraud had on us was to reinforce our already strong awareness that our philanthropy dollars represent investments in organizations as much as in causes, which is why our larger and repetitive philanthropic investments are always with well-run organizations.”
Kickbacks detailed in court records
Perhaps one of the most challenging aspects of unraveling Gatlin’s web of fraudulent charges for investigators and Foundation officials was determining the validity of charges.
Overall, Holsendolph, Hill and other Foundation vendors did provide some goods and services to the nonprofit for legitimate fundraising events, according to Jackson documents reviewed by the Herald and Gatlin’s indictment. But many times, their bills, approved by Gatlin, never benefited the Foundation or Jackson Health, according to the indictment and Jackson records.
Consider Gatlin’s relationship with Jones, the Atlanta businessman who technically was not a Foundation vendor because his company, American Sound Design (ASD), did not provide any services to the Foundation or Jackson Health System.
In his plea agreement, Jones admitted using his company to submit more than $2 million in false bills to the Foundation for audiovisual services. American Sound Design received 53 payments from the Foundation that were authorized by Gatlin, including 51 wire transfers to his corporate account at Wells Fargo.
He then paid Gatlin kickbacks totaling more than $1 million in 63 wire transfers, 10 checks and one Zelle payment to her personal Bank of America account.
“At times, Charmain Gatlin instructed [Jones] how to falsify invoices to the Foundation for services ASD did not provide,” according to a factual statement filed with his plea agreement.
That’s evident in this email exchange: On Jan. 7, 2024, Jones emailed Gatlin’s personal email with a draft invoice for extending audiovisual equipment at the Jackson “Holiday Parties” two “additional days” for $50,172.50, the invoice says.
The following day, Gatlin responded in her personal email: “Get to $58,477. When you email it over ask for the status of the payment.”
Nine days later, on Jan. 16, Gatlin wired that same amount — $58,477 – to the bank account of Jones’ company, ASD.
Two days later, Jones wired a kickback of about $25,000 to Gatlin’s personal bank account. Jones then made a $20,000 payment on his American Express card using the Jackson funds.
100 Black Men of America: Not aware of Gatlin’s fraud
In statements provided to the Herald, 100 Black Men of America said it was not aware of Gatlin’s kickback scheme with Jones, including billing the Foundation for services that his firm provided to the Atlanta organization.
The organization confirmed that Jones provided those services between 2019 and 2024 under a different audiovisual company, American Electronic Entertainment. In fact, 100 Black Men of America said it paid Jones’ company more than $500,000 for his work, but the organization did not provide payment details.
“100 Black Men of America, Inc. has no knowledge of Ms. Gatlin’s alleged receipt of cash payments or fraudulent invoices being submitted by Ms. Gatlin or any other vendors in the indictment involving Jackson Health Foundation,” the organization said, adding that “Gatlin has never been paid by the 100 BMOA as a ‘go-between’ to then pay vendors for services provided to 100 BMOA.”
Last week, when asked to respond to more detailed questions about Jones, Holsendolph and Hill, the organization said it “has fully cooperated with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the investigation.
“With each detail revealed, we are more surprised at the way the charitable work of our organization was used in the illegal scheme described in the court filings that the parties and others created,” the group’s latest statement said.
“While 100 Black Men has been mentioned in this matter by the Miami Herald, there is nothing in any court filings by the U.S. Attorney to suggest any involvement in any illegal activity by our organization.”
100 Black Men of America hired Gatlin in January as a contractor for its annual conference in 2025 — but fired her in May when the organization said it learned about her indictment.
View of the Club at Weston Hills, in Weston, Florida, Oct. 7, 2025. Pedro Portal pportal@miamiherald.com
Golfing in Weston
Gatlin appeared to be a popular leader based on her evaluation reports over a 10-year career at the Foundation, which has just under 20 employees.
Before her firing last year, she made a base salary of $290,000. But her six-figure salary didn’t stop her from using the Foundation as her personal piggy bank, records show.
When Gatlin was arrested in May, the news media zeroed in on one titillating allegation in her indictment: that she ordered a new rose gold-colored golf cart for just over $15,500 from a Tampa supplier at the Foundation’s expense and had it delivered to her rented Weston home in September 2023.
Gatlin submitted an invoice for the new golf cart around the same time that two golf carts that belonged to Jackson Health System were being repaired by the Tampa company. She listed the expenses under the “transportation account” – by “making it appear as though the new golf cart would be used by Jackson or the Foundation,” according to the indictment.
The bill was bogus – but there’s more to her golf-fueled billing spree, according to invoices Gatlin approved and the Foundation paid.
Records show Gatlin submitted 14 invoices to the Foundation to pay for its board of directors’ golf memberships at the Club at Weston Hills between 2022 and 2023. But there was a problem: The Foundation’s board members don’t have golf privileges at the exclusive club. The Jackson Health Foundation said it does not pay golf memberships for anyone.
Foundation emails obtained by the Herald show the club membership was actually under Gatlin’s name. And when the Foundation’s finance director called attention to why the membership was not tax-free – normally the case with a nonprofit – Gatlin had an answer:
“This whole membership thing has been a mess,” Gatlin wrote in an email to the finance director, claiming the Foundation’s chair at the time determined “it was best” to do an individual member rate instead of the pricier corporate rate.
Charmaine Gatlin in 2022 signed up for a golf membership with the Club at Weston Hills. She charged the Jackson Health Foundation for the membership, claiming it was for board members, Jackson records show.
“They put my name down since I have the foundation email address and listed themselves as the guests,” Gatlin wrote. “By doing a membership rate, we don’t get the nonprofit exemptions. The monthly bills will come to my work email address. So we are stuck with paying taxes.”
In reality, the club’s billing statements show the only people to ever use the membership were Gatlin and her husband, Arthur, an avid golfer.
The total tab: $23,880.14 – footed by the Foundation.
Executive women’s club membership
Gatlin also used Foundation funds to pay her $2,900 annual membership fee to an executive women’s club in New York City. Invoice records show that Gatlin made six payments totaling $17,400 for her membership to CHIEF between 2021 and 2025.
In another instance, Gatlin charged the Foundation $198.57 for a June 2019 hotel stay at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas during the same week that 100 Black Men of America hosted its annual conference in Sin City.
Sometimes, Gatlin would also approve invoices from Georgia companies, which would have been unusual given that Jackson Health System and the Foundation usually work with South Florida vendors.
Falsifies board chair’s email
As time went on, Gatlin became more daring.
Perhaps the most brazen example of Gatlin’s scheme surfaced as her colleagues began to suspect she was misappropriating the Foundation’s funds last fall – before she was placed on leave and fired that November.
As they began to closely review her expenses in September 2024, her colleagues discovered that Gatlin falsified an email from Foundation chairman David Coulson.
She changed the original email, “making it look like the board member approved two invoices from” Holsen for more than $60,000, according to her indictment.
Coulson, in the altered email, writes “these two invoices are approved for payment,” according to emails the Herald obtained from Jackson. The invoices totaled more than $71,000 for “Orthopedic Giveaways” and “Hispanic Heritage Giveaway” – expenses for events that were “not authorized” and didn’t happen, records show.
Gatlin then authorized two fraudulent payments – $37,174 and $34,602 – to Holsen in October 2024, a month before she was fired, records show.
In reality, Gatlin never asked Coulson to approve the invoices. In fact, the email makes no mention of any invoices. Instead, Gatlin talks about an unspecified change in the Foundation. She tells the chairman that she doesn’t “have an issue with the change, but in how and when I found out.”
It’s unclear what change Gatlin was referring to. Coulson, a Miami lawyer, died unexpectedly last month. Based on the emails, it appears he never answered her.
Gatlin’s upcoming sentencing
Gatlin faces between four and seven years in prison, depending on how U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom weighs key factors: the amount of her theft from the Foundation, her leadership role, her abuse of the public trust, and the sophisticated nature of her billing scheme.
Soon after she pleaded guilty in mid-September, a person submitted a critical letter to the judge before her sentencing on Nov. 25 – an unusual move.
“I trust you will consider before sentencing, the fact that this single person can completely destroy the confidence individuals may feel when it comes to charity,” Bill Begley wrote the judge on Sept. 19, after Gatlin pleaded guilty to the wire-fraud conspiracy.
“It’s not just the amount of money she has stolen, but it is the impact on all charities,” he wrote. “When something like this occurs, there needs to be a significant punishment to send a signal to others [that] this is NOT acceptable in our society.”
Benjamín León Jr., the founder of Leon Medical Centers and the nominee for U.S. ambassador to Spain, will be honored this week for his contributions to South Florida by the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce.
The Cuban American businessman and philanthropist, whose senior-focused health empire has made him a household name in the region, will receive the 2025 Sand in my Shoes Award on Thursday at Jungle Island.
The award is considered to be “one of South Florida’s most prestigious community leadership accolades” and recognizes people who “have made lasting contributions to the South Florida region, reflecting a commitment to making Miami the best possible place to live, work, and play,” according to the chamber. It was first awarded to businessman Lester Freeman in 1981.
“To receive the Sand in My Shoes Award is a deeply humbling honor,” León said in a statement. “Miami has given so much to me and my family — from the moment we arrived here, this community embraced us. I’ve always felt a profound responsibility to give back to the community and country that gave us a future. I share this recognition with all those who have supported our mission over the years.”
A health empire
Born in Cuba, León arrived to Miami in 1961 at 16. A few years later, his father helped establish Miami’s first prepaid medical center to provide care for newly arrived Cuban exiles, according to his online biography. Later, the two founded Clínica Asociación Cubana, which became Florida’s first licensed HMO, essentially a one-stop shop for healthcare.
León is most well known for founding Leon Medical Centers in 1996 to provide primary, specialty, pharmacy and other care for Miami’s seniors. His health empire is now one of the largest healthcare institutions in Florida, caring for more than 40,000 Medicare patients across Miami-Dade County, with several centers, a fleet of vans to transport seniors, and Leon Health, a Medicare Advantage Health plan that works with Leon Medical Centers.
You won’t just see his name on the many vans traveling across South Florida. You’ll also find it on college campuses. He helped support the creation of the Benjamin León Center for Geriatric Research and Education at FIU’s medical school and the Miami Dade College Benjamin León School of Nursing.
But his reach extends beyond healthcare. León is also a real estate investor and a philanthropist, supporting nonprofits, medical and nursing educational institutions, and community projects related to the Cuban exile, including a recent $10 million gift for the new home of FIU’s CasaCuba, a Cuban cultural and academic center. Last year, he received the 2024 Dr. Ramiro Collazo Outstanding Citizen Award from the Miami Cuban Lions Club for his decades of service to the community, just like his father did years ago.
He was also nominated earlier this year by President Donald Trump to be the country’s next ambassador to Spain.
On Thursday, León will join a long list of other well-known South Florida recipients of the Sand in my Shoes Award, including philanthropists Trish & Dan Bell, who were recognized last year. The couple has gifted millions through the years to supports the arts, religious institutions, educational and medical organizations, and Miami’s underserved.
“This award symbolizes more than lifetime achievement — it represents an enduring legacy,” said Alfred Sanchez, the chamber’s president and CEO. “Benjamin León, Jr. exemplifies the entrepreneurial spirit, community devotion, and leadership that continue to shape Miami’s future.”
Sand in my Shoes Award recipients
Other recent award recipients include Founder and Managing Partner of Medina Capital and eMerge Americas Founder and Chairman Manuel “Manny” Medina, Gloria and Emilio Estefan,former Miami Herald publishers David Lawrence Jr. and Alberto Ibargüen, Jackson Health System CEO Carlos Migoya and former Baptist Health President and CEO Brian E. Keeley.
Here’s the full list of Sand in My Shoes recipients:
Trish & Dan Bell (2024)
Alberto Ibargüen (2023)
Manuel D. Medina (2022)
David Lawrence Jr. (2021)
Penny Shaffer (2020)
Tony Argiz (2019)
Brian E. Keeley (2018)
Carlos A. Migoya (2017)
Patricia & Dr. Phillip Frost (2016)
Harve A. Mogul (2015)
Donna E. Shalala (2014)
Gloria & Emilio Estefan (2013)
Eduardo J. Padrón (2012)
Peter J. Dolara (2011)
Modesto A. Maidique (2010)
Adolfo Henriques (2009)
Sherwood M. “Woody” Weiser (2008)
Jayne & Leonard Abess (2007)
Jorge Pérez (2006)
Carlos J. Arboleya, Sr. (2005)
William O. Cullom (2003)
Armando Codina (2002)
Sue & Leonard Miller (2001)
Edward T. Foote II (2000)
Sister Jeanne O’Laughlin (1999)
Robert H. Traurig (1997)
Jim Batten (1995)
Congressman Dante Fascell (1994)
Congressman William Lehman (1993)
M. Anthony Burns (1991)
Martin Fine (1990)
Ted Hoepner, Jr. (1989)
R. Ray Goode & Leslie Pantin, Sr. (posthumously) (1988)
Michelle Marchante covers the pulse of healthcare in South Florida and also the City of Coral Gables. Before that, she covered the COVID-19 pandemic, hurricanes, crime, education, entertainment and other topics in South Florida for the Herald as a breaking news reporter. An investigative series about the abrupt closure of a Miami heart transplant program led Michelle and her colleagues to be recognized as finalists in two 2024 Florida Sunshine State Award categories. She also won second place in the 73rd annual Green Eyeshade Awards for her consumer-focused healthcare stories and was part of the team of reporters who won a 2022 Pulitzer Prize for the Miami Herald’s breaking news coverage of the Surfside building collapse. Michelle graduated with honors from Florida International University and was a 2025 National Press Foundation Covering Workplace Mental Health fellow and a 2020-2021 Poynter-Koch Media & Journalism fellow. Support my work with a digital subscription
A man and woman were struck and killed by a train in Little River Monday night, Oct. 6, 2025, according to Miami police and firefighters.
Getty Images | Royalty Free
Two people were struck and killed by a cargo train in Little River on Monday night, Miami Police and Fire Rescue confirmed.
The man and woman were hit on the tracks near Northeast 71st Street and North Miami Avenue around 10:40 p.m., said Officer Michael Vega, a Miami police spokesman.
Lt. Pete Sanchez with Miami Fire Rescue added they were dead when paramedics arrived.
This story will be updated as more information becomes available.
This story was originally published October 6, 2025 at 11:57 PM.
David Goodhue covers the Florida Keys and South Florida for FLKeysNews.com and the Miami Herald. Before joining the Herald, he covered Congress, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy in Washington, D.C. He is a graduate of the University of Delaware.
A man was shot outside a restaurant in Miami’s Allapattah neighborhood Sunday morning, police say.
Just before 11 a.m., the shooting occurred outside Republica Food & Lounge, located at 1260 NW 36th St., according to Miami police. The victim was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital with a gunshot wound. He was conscious.
Officers spoke to the people who brought the man to the emergency room, according to law enforcement officials, who didn’t elaborate further.
Investigators later located a shooting scene outside the restaurant, per police. As of Sunday evening, it’s unclear if anyone has been arrested in connection to the shooting.
This report will be updated as more information becomes available.
This story was originally published October 5, 2025 at 8:53 PM.
Grethel covers courts and the criminal justice system for the Miami Herald. She graduated from the University of Florida (Go Gators!), speaks Spanish and Arabic and loves animals, traveling, basketball and good storytelling. Grethel also attends law school part time.
A tropical wave is brewing in the Atlantic Ocean as another tropical system drifting over Florida has already drenched the state with heavy rainfall. Where is the developing storm now — and where is it headed?
The tropical wave, a broad area of low pressure, is currently several hundred miles south-southwest of the Cabo Verde Islands, according to the National Hurricane Center’s Sunday morning update. Due to the system’s distance from land at the moment, it isn’t causing severe weather in the South Florida region.
The tropical wave is expected to further develop, with environmental conditions “appear[ing] conducive” for a tropical depression to form this week, the NHC said in its advisory. The system is expected to move quickly across the central tropical Atlantic and will approach the Leeward Islands later this week.
So, what are the chances of cyclone formation? Per the NHC, they are:
In 48 hours: Medium at 40%
Through 7 days: High at 70%
This story was originally published October 5, 2025 at 2:13 PM.
Grethel covers courts and the criminal justice system for the Miami Herald. She graduated from the University of Florida (Go Gators!), speaks Spanish and Arabic and loves animals, traveling, basketball and good storytelling. Grethel also attends law school part time.
Miami police found an unoccupied, bullet-riddled car near NW 16th Ave and 47th St after a ShotSpotter alert; one man later died at Jackson Memorial Hospital.
Miami Herald file
Miami Herald
Miami police officers discovered a car riddled with bullets Friday night, with no one around. They later learned that two men connected to the shooting went to the hospital , one of whom was injured from gunfire — he later died from his injuries, the Miami police said.
Around 8:30 p.m., officers responded to a ShotSpotter alert reporting a possible shooting in the area of Northwest 16th Avenue and 47th Street, Miami police said. An unoccupied vehicle damaged by gunshots was found and no one was on the scene.
The Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office later told Miamipolice officers two men had arrived at Jackson Memorial Hospital, one of whom was suffering from a gunshot wound. He later died, the department said.
Police have not said what caused the shooting or if there are any suspects. The deceased man has not been identified.
Miami Herald Cops and Breaking News Reporter Devoun Cetoute covers a plethora of Florida topics, from breaking news to crime patterns. He was on the breaking news team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2022. He’s a graduate of the University of Florida, born and raised in Miami-Dade. Theme parks, movies and cars are on his mind in and out of the office.
Zoë Madison Orndorff is one of three Miami-area winners of the OneUnited Bank’s Financial Literacy Essay and Art Contest. She is pictured here selling her books, pet rocks and snacks.
Courtesy of OneUnited Bank.
At age 9, Zoë Madison Orndorff already has an entrepreneurial spirit. She’s co-written two books with her mother and sells jewelry and pet rocks at the Palmetto Bay Artisan and Farmer’s Market.
And now she is one of three Miami-area students to win OneUnited Bank’s Financial Literacy Essay and Art Contest. Now in its 15th year, the contest awards students with $1,000 toward a savings account after reading a book about financial literacy and writing an essay. Along with Orndorff, who attends Airbase K-8 Learning Center in Homestead, the other winners this year are Andrew Elus, 12, and, Jalonie Lue Shue, 11, who also wrote essays on financial literacy.
Zoë Madison Orndorff is one of three Miami-area winners of the One United Bank’s Financial Literacy Essay and Art Contest. Courtesy of OneUnited Bank.
Orndorff is already thinking long-term about her plans for her $1,000: “I want to get more money from the interest for college and a car,” she said.
Teri Williams, OneUnited Bank president and CEO, said the Black-owned bank created the contest after she visited elementary schools to talk about financial literacy and noticed that children were not knowledgeable about money management. She also realized many books didn’t cater to students who lived in urban areas.
“Most of the books about money for children were about lemonade stands in front of white picket fences in the suburbs,” she said. “So we were trying to figure out a way to state the educational process for our community in the schools.”
Itled Williams to write the book “I Got Bank: What My Granddad Taught Me About Money,” as away of teaching youth about money management. To participate in the contest, children had to read a book about financial literacy, be it Williams’ or another book, and write an essay about how the information could help them and their families throughout their financial journeys.
The essays provided a snapshot of what the children and their families are experiencing with their finances, said Williams. “We saw more discussion about how kids could use money to help their family with necessities, rent, groceries and the day-to-day cost of living that you know their family is either struggling with or going through,” Williams said. “There does seem to be an undercurrent of financial stress that our kids are feeling.”
In her essay, Orndorff wrote that she learned about bank accounts and credits scores and how they affect your ability to get an account and interest rates on loans. Orndorff’s mother Nia Madison learned about the contest through her Jack and Jill chapter, and urged her daughter to apply for the contest to learn more about saving money, adding that this is her child’s first time having a bank account of any kind. Madison said she’d been open with her daughter about her own finances in order to better educate her on money management.
“The cost of living is increasing year by year, and I want her to at least be able to live the quality of life that we currently live, if not even better,” Madison said. “That requires me to inform her about inflation, interest, investments and savings.”
Williams said what stood out to her about Orndorff’s essay was that she’d learn something and applied it to her life. Teaching financial literacy has become increasingly important since the contest initiated 15 years ago, said Williams. Now many states, including Florida, introduce financial literacy classes into their curriculums.
Williams also said families’ relationship with money and the conversations they’re having with their children about it has changed in more recent years. “It has become accepted that we need to teach our kids about money. There’s no argument there anymore.”
Zumper, a national digital marketplace for renters, has published its latest National Rent Report, and rents in Atlanta remain among the top 25 most expensive in the country. One-bedroom and two-bedroom units in the city proper, not to be confused with metro Atlanta, are above the national average despite rents falling over the past 90 days.
Atlanta is 25th on a list that includes the usual suspects, New York City (1st), San Francisco (2nd), Boston (3rd), and Miami (6th).
“National rent prices have now been flat or falling for three straight months, which signals a real shift in the market,” said Zumper’s Crystal Chen, one of the two authors of the report along with Quentin Proctor. “A mix of cooling renter demand, last year’s record wave of new supply, and softer conditions in the job market has taken some heat out of rents.”
Zumper’s National Rent Index revealed that national rent prices were either flat or declining for the third consecutive month. In September, one-bedroom rent units held steady at $1,517 per month, while rents for two-bedroom units dipped 0.2% to $1,894. The good news: Year-over-year, both unit types are down 1%.
An apartment building (left, rear) looms large near Atlanta’s Historic Sweet Auburn District. Photo by Donnell Suggs/The Atlanta Voice
But not in Atlanta—at least not yet. According to Zumper data, one-bedroom units in Atlanta average $1650 per month, while two-bedroom units average $2,010, more than $100 above the national average.
“We’ll likely see prices temper a bit further through the winter if typical seasonality patterns hold true, but with fewer new units being built this year, rent prices will likely increase again as we move into the spring months of 2026,” Chen said.
Those numbers are still better than those in San Francisco, for example, where a one-bedroom unit averages $3,500 and a two-bedroom unit is breaking the $5,000 mark.
Rents in the mountain region are down. For example, one-bedroom units in Salt Lake City are down 11% year-over-year. Desert cities such as Las Vegas (-3.3%) and Phoenix (-3.8%) have also seen rent prices fall.
CORAL GABLES, Fla. — There’s a lot of things that Miami quarterback Carson Beck had to learn when he joined the Hurricanes in January.
The meaning of rivalry weeks was not among them.
For the first time, Miami is set to face its two biggest rivals — Florida and Florida State — in consecutive games during the same season. (Technically, there have been three instances of Miami seeing those opponents in back-to-back games, all when the Hurricanes ended one season facing the Gators and opened the next season against the Seminoles.)
What You Need To Know
No. 4 Miami will play host to Florida on Saturday
Carson Beck is the Hurricanes’ quarterback this year and has defeated the Gators twice when he played for Georgia
Beck said he is very familiar with rivalry games — at Georgia and among college teams in Florida
Miami already has played USF this season, and it will take on Florida and Florida State, too
It starts Saturday, when Beck and the fourth-ranked Hurricanes (3-0) play host to the Gators (1-2). Miami beat Florida last season, and Beck was Georgia’s starting quarterback for wins over the Gators — the Bulldogs also count Florida as a big rival — in 2023 and 2024.
“I’m very up to speed,” Beck said. “Obviously, being at Georgia, we value our rivalries. I mean, Georgia-Florida is one of the biggest games of the year for us every year. Being in Miami, you get two in-state rivalries, which is pretty dope. The tensions rise. The competition is always heightened with those rivalry games. And obviously, I’ve been in Florida my whole life, so I’m super familiar with all the rivalries.”
In turn, the Gators are also super familiar with Beck.
He has the chance to be the third quarterback in the past 25 years — fellow former Georgia quarterbacks Jake Fromm and Aaron Murray are the others — to beat Florida three times as a starter. Beck was 44 of 68 passing for 624 yards, four touchdowns and three interceptions against Florida in the past two seasons, getting wins by scores of 43-20 and 34-20.
“He’s a good quarterback,” Florida defensive lineman George Gumbs Jr. said. “I feel like going into every game with a good quarterback, our goal is to affect the quarterback. The quarterback is usually going to be the team. So, once we affect the quarterback, we slow the offense down.”
Miami’s three opponents so far this season — Notre Dame, Bethune-Cookman and USF — have had similar mindsets going into their games against the Hurricanes. None were successful.
Among quarterbacks with more than 20 pass attempts so far this season, Beck leads the country with a 79.3% completion percentage. He’s 65 of 82 through three games for 812 yards with seven touchdowns and two interceptions, both of those picks coming against USF last week and neither exactly being his fault. And nobody in the past 30 years has gotten off to such an accurate start in three games, with at least two of those contests coming against AP-ranked opponents.
Plus, there’s this: Beck simply knows the Gators. It’s a plus for Miami this week.
“You prepare for everything historically, what teams have done and whatnot,” Miami coach Mario Cristobal said. “But without question, experience at that position and understanding conceptually what we do versus what opponents show us is always a tremendous bonus. And certainly, he takes a lot of pride in studying his opponents. So, any insight from him is welcome and respected.”
Beck is from Jacksonville, not too far from Gainesville, and around his freshman year of high school, he decided that he would attend Florida to play both football and baseball. Plans changed, obviously, but he clearly has more than just a basic understanding of the rivalry.
And he knows Florida’s defense is better than the Gators’ 1-2 record. Florida’s defense has yielded only two touchdowns this season so far and has given up just seven in its past seven games going back to last year.
“It’s a really good defense, and they’ve shown that this year in the three games that they’ve played,” Beck said. “So again, it’s going to be a challenge for us. But you know, we’re excited to accept that challenge.”
A Delta Air Lines flight departing Miami International Airport on Saturday returned safely to the airport shortly after takeoff, following a reported bird strike that forced the plane to make an emergency landing, according to the airline and the Federal Aviation Administration.
There were no injuries.
The flight, DL1300, was heading to Boston Logan Internal Airport when birds seemingly struck one of the aircraft’s two engines, a Delta Air Lines spokesperson said in an email to CBS News.
The plane eventually took off again and arrived in Boston approximately two hours after it was originally scheduled to land, according to the spokesperson.
“We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused,” the spokesperson said.
How bird strikes affect aviation safety is a growing concern for officials at the FAA, who reported a 14% increase in incidents where planes collided with wildlife between 2023 and 2024. According to an FAA database that tracks such incidents, more than 8,000 wildlife strikes have impacted flights since the start of 2025.
Kilty Cleary is a Los Angeles-based media and marketing pro with 18+ years of experience. He’s worked with top brands like Sporting News and Sports Illustrated, building key partnerships and creating engaging content. Follow him on X and IG @theonlykilty
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Surprising South Florida (2-0) looks for a third straight win over a ranked opponent when they visit Miami (2-0) at Hard Rock Stadium on Saturday evening.
Carson Beck #11 of the Miami Hurricanes looks on prior to the game against the Bethune-Cookman Wildcats at Hard Rock Stadium on September 6, 2025 in Miami Gardens, Florida. Carson Beck #11 of the Miami Hurricanes looks on prior to the game against the Bethune-Cookman Wildcats at Hard Rock Stadium on September 6, 2025 in Miami Gardens, Florida. Photo by Leonardo Fernandez/Getty Images
South Florida opened the season unranked but now stands at No. 18 after a dominant 34-7 homefield victory over then-No. 25 Boise State before Nico Gramatica’s 20-yard field goal as time expired sealed an 18-16 win at then-No. 13 Florida last week. The Bulls are 1-6 all-time against the Hurricanes, with the lone win coming at Miami in 2010, and took a 50-15 loss at home last September.
The ‘Canes, ranked No. 10 in the preseason, have climbed up to No. 5 after beating then-No. 6 Notre Dame 27-24 in their opener and followed that up with a 45-3 thumping of FCS opponent Bethune-Cookman a week ago. Carson Beck, a Georgia transfer, has started hot for Miami, completing 76.4% of his throws for 472 yards and four touchdowns, three of those to LSU transfer CJ Daniels.
This is a great college football matchup that you will not want to miss; make sure to tune in and catch all the action.
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The Philadelphia Union came into 2025 a mess. The club was selling fan favorites, not listening to fans’ needs, and trying to find its identity in the post-Jim Curtin era. Surprisingly, they found that identity quickly.
Now, the Union are 5 games away from glory.
Leading the Shield Race
The Union has a slight grasp of the 2025 MLS Supporters Shield. The reward is given to the team with the most points in MLS at the end of the season. Last week, the club achieved perhaps its greatest victory in 2025, a 1-0 win in Cincinnati.
The win gives the Union a firm hold of the top spot in the Eastern Conference. The Union holds a 5-point advantage over second-place Cincinnati. Realistically, the Union should have their eyes on Inter Miami and Lionel Messi. Miami has 4 games in hand on the Union. If they turn those 4 games into 12 points, Miami can snatch the shield away.
However, Miami has been in the headlines for the wrong reasons. In their loss to Seattle in the Leagues Cup final, a post-match altercation will leave Miami without Luis Suarez for 3 MLS games. Simultaneously, Miami’s busy summer schedule has them shoving 9 games in their final 6 weeks of play. There is a high chance that an older Miami team just runs out of gas.
This does not mean the Union is in the clear for the Shield. Their biggest contenders are going to be expansion side San Diego, in the Western Conference. San Diego is just 1 point behind the Union. Both San Diego and the Union likely face their biggest remaining challenge this weekend. San Diego hosts Minnesota, who are 2nd in the West. While the Union travels up north to face Vancouver, who are 3rd in the west.
All Trophies Still in Play
The Supporters Shield is not the only trophy the Union is fighting for. Philly is still in the US Open Cup tournament, and any team can make a run through the MLS Cup playoffs. The Union travels to Nashville in the Open Cup semifinals next Tuesday.
As far as the MLS Cup goes, should the Union at least hold on to the top spot in the East, the Eastern Conference playoffs would come through Philadelphia. In 2022, Union fans learned how valuable home-field advantage is in the playoffs.
Who would have thought that an American treble would be on the table for the Union in 2025? The Supporters Shield, US Open Cup, and MLS Cup are calling the Union’s name. Can the Union shock the world and dominate American club soccer in 2025? Or is more heartbreak in store for the Union faithful?
Nonetheless, the 2025 campaign has been a pleasant surprise for Union fans. Let’s hope the club leaves with some trophies to show for it.
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