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• Jun 23, 2007 7:44 am US/Eastern
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  Miami Police Commander Linked To Corruption Probe

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Miami Police Commander Linked To Corruption Probe

MIAMI (CBS4) ― A top Miami police official said she had no idea the person she hired to design plans for a guest house at her home was doing private work on city time at taxpayer expense, but an activist group upset with Miami's newest corruption charges disputes her claim.

As CBS4 reported Thursday, 11 engineers and architects working for the city of Miami have been charged with setting up a private design business in their city offices, doing work on city time, taking private clients while city work went unfinished.

The 11 workers were arrested Thursday, and almost immediately, work started leaking out about who had taken advantage of their in-house services.

Among the names, Miami police commander Milady Irizarry, 26 year veteran and a top ranking officer in the city's police structure, who was listed in court documents as one of the people who paid city project manager Victor Marzo $3000 for design work.

She told investigators she met with Marzo at city hall, during work hours, to pick up a set of preliminary plans. However, court documents show Irizarry told investigators she didn't know Marzo was doing the work on city time.

Protesters demonstrating outside Miami's city hall expressed outrage over the corruption scandal, and disbelief about Commander Irizarry's statement.

"It would be very difficult for a police commander not to know that a city property was being used to conduct business during business hours, and the business being conducted was not city business," said Lida Rodriguez-Taseff of Jobs With Justice. "It would be very difficult not to know that that business was unlawful, illegal or illicit in violation of some sort of law, rule, or regulation."

The Miami Police Department said Irizarry is currently out on disability leave, and declined a request to release a taped interview she gave to investigators.

"Right now, things are active and ongoing and as a result of that we can't talk a whole lot about this," said Lt. Delrish Moss, Miami police spokesman.

Police do say there is no indication Irizarry knew that something illegal was taking place.

Attempts to contact Irizarry Friday were not successful.

(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)