A suspended Miami city commissioner, Alex Diaz de la Portilla, facing allegations of accepting $245,000 in exchange for approving a sports facility’s construction, has pleaded not guilty to multiple felony charges, including bribery and money laundering. His attorney entered the plea on his behalf in court. Diaz de la Portilla, along with co-defendant Miami attorney William Riley Jr., was arrested in September.
Governor Ron DeSantis suspended Diaz de la Portilla following his arrest, and his attorney mentioned that Diaz de la Portilla was campaigning to retain his commission seat in the November 7 election.
Both defendants posted bail shortly after their arrests, and their next status hearing is scheduled for November 14, with no trial date set yet.
Diaz de la Portilla, a former state legislator elected to the city commission in 2019, is accused of not reporting campaign donations, accepting money for his brother’s judicial campaign, and operating two political committees used for personal spending.
The charges against them include money laundering, unlawful compensation for official behavior, bribery, criminal conspiracy, official misconduct, and failure to report gifts, among others.
, an independent military force, and allied militias in Sudan raped several dozen women and girls in West Darfur’s capital, El Geneina, and those fleeing to Chad between late April and late June 2023, Human Rights Watch said today. The assailants appear to have targeted people because of their Massalit ethnicity and, in some cases, because they were known activists.){kind=link}