Saint Pizzi

Asked if he gets gratification from his in-your-face tactics, Pizzi snaps, "Of course I do!" He sinks into an office loveseat: "But I ask myself every day if I'm fighting for the right reasons. I believe I am. I believe I have integrity and, well, principles ..."

Since he took Perez's case, Pizzi hasn't missed an opportunity to draw publicity to his client's plight. For example, he provided me with a copy of the deposition of John Renfrow, director of the county's Department of Environmental Resources Management, or DERM, which became the focus of a New Times article ("The Dumbing-Down of DERM," January 23, 2003), criticizing Renfrow for allowing his boss, Shiver, to undermine DERM. It was classic Pizzi: provide a reporter with newsworthy information on an ongoing controversial subject he is involved in.

Needless to say, it didn't make Renfrow or Shiver happy. A week after the article ran, both confronted me outside the county commission chambers in downtown Miami. "What Pizzi did was wrong," Shiver chastised. "He gave you an advance copy of John's deposition before [Renfrow] had a chance to read it. Pizzi gave you that information just to get his name in the paper." Shiver also had the audacity to claim that he was responsible for shutting down Ouster. "I really don't appreciate the personal attacks on me," Renfrow chimed in, referring to Pizzi's comment that the DERM director "couldn't find his office with a map." Pizzi also rankled Mestre's lawyer, Andres Rivero, who unsuccessfully tried to obtain a gag order on Pizzi, preventing him from contacting the press.

Meanwhile Pizzi wants Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge John Gordon, who is handling the case, to hold Shiver in contempt for allegedly misleading the court about his knowledge of a much-publicized pollution case. Shiver declined any further discussion while the lawsuit is pending.

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Pizzi's cluttered Brickell Avenue office is adorned with plaques from the DEA, the U.S. Marshals Service, and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, commending his work. Although he's developing a star reputation as a criminal defense attorney, Pizzi remains a cop at heart. For the past few months, he's been considering a run as a Republican against Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle, a Democrat, in 2004. Despite her winning re-election in 2000, local political pundits believe the two-time state prosecutor is vulnerable (rumors from knowledgeable sources say she may not even seek re-election). One reason: Alberto Milian, Rundle's Republican opponent in the 2000 race, garnered 44 percent of the vote, despite having never run for office before. Milian did an effective job of pointing out Rundle's shortcomings -- such as her perceived soft approach to fighting public corruption, and that her office drops a full third of the arrests police make. Milian also had the full support of the Miami-Dade County Police Benevolent Association, which has a long-running feud with Rundle. No word yet if the PBA plans on re-endorsing Milian, or if the group would take its chances with Pizzi. The PBA supported Pizzi in his re-election last year to the Miami Lakes Town Council. But John Rivera, PBA president, did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Milian says he intends to run again in 2004; this would hurt Pizzi's chances, says Dario Moreno, a political science professor and media pundit from Florida International University. "Unless Pizzi can make a dent in the Cuban-American vote, he'll have a hard time against Milian," Moreno surmises. For one thing, there's Milian's name recognition. He's the son of Emilio Milian, the recently deceased radio broadcaster and Cuban-exile hero whose legs were blown off in a 1976 car bombing. In his run against Rundle, Milian was strong in Cuban-American neighborhoods such as south Hialeah, where 75 percent of the voters backed him. Milian has only bolstered his stature since 2000, working as a radio commentator at first WWFE-AM 670, and currently on Radio Uno, WKAT-AM 1360, talking about all things Miami, including (surprise, surprise) public corruption in this town. Milian also has experience. He spent twelve years as an assistant state attorney in Broward County. "The voters know me," Milian relates. "Three years ago, I was the only person willing to take [Rundle] on. I was the only one with the courage to say she wasn't doing her job, that she was soft on public corruption, and that she was squandering resources."

But if somehow Pizzi could get past Milian in the September 2004 Republican primary, the former parole officer would have a good shot at beating Rundle in the November election, presuming Dubya's approval ratings are still soaring. "During a presidential election, Hispanics tend to vote party over ethnicity," Moreno theorizes. In Miami-Dade, Hispanic Republicans outnumber Hispanic Democrats by 237,817 to 105,536. "So Pizzi would carry the Hispanic Republican vote, and then he could pick up the Anglo Republican vote and enough Anglo Democrat voters (the ones who don't vote for Hispanics) to put him over the top."