Michelle Spence-Jones, wearing a red and black dress, black stockings, and no shoes, stood in the middle of her Liberty City home's wood-floored living room. It was close to 1 p.m. this past Friday the 13th. Fourteen friends and family members — all African-American — gathered around and listened raptly. She spoke authoritatively, gesticulating with both hands, her long black dreadlocks bouncing to the beat of her high-pitched voice.
Michelle Spence-Jones: "This is no time to be moping."
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"It is amazing how wicked the timing of this whole thing was," Spence-Jones railed. "They knew I had a swearing-in ceremony. They had at least ten days since I was re-elected to tell me that they had something on Spence-Jones — that I had to come in."
Earlier that morning, law enforcement authorities arrested the 42-year-old Miami city commissioner on one count of second-degree grand theft. She is accused of stealing $22,000 in county grant money. By the time she bonded out of jail, Gov. Charlie Crist had suspended her from the commission post.
"This allows the governor to step in," Spence-Jones continued. "And the governor is going to put in his own person, someone who can be controlled."
Everyone in the room either nodded in agreement or let out an emphatic "Yeah!"
"We cannot lay down," Spence-Jones continued. "We will not lay down. All this craziness they made up about Spence-Jones is gonna go away. But we must continue to fight. We must send a message to the new mayor to make sure we get the best person to represent District 5. We must tell the governor: 'Mr. Charlie Crist, you cannot tell us who is going to represent District 5.'"
A backer, Miami architect Neil Hall, put his arm around her. "I love your spirit," he said.
"What did you think?" Spence-Jones responded. "That you were coming to a funeral? This is no time to be moping."
The Spence-Jones takedown capped the most tumultuous week in city political history since the 1997 mayoral voter fraud scandal. It began November 10, when police Chief John Timoney relinquished his job just as Tomas Regalado took the mayor's office. And it ended with only two city commissioners on the dais — one short of a quorum. Angel Gonzalez announced he would resign this past Wednesday after admitting he secured his daughter a no-show job with a city contractor. Another empty seat awaits a runoff.
Unlike Gonzalez, Spence-Jones will take on Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle and public corruption assistant state prosecutor Richard Scruggs, who built the case against her.
During her swearing-in ceremony last Thursday, before a roomful of supporters, Spence-Jones alluded to past investigations of black elected officials. "They did it to Commissioner [Miller] Dawkins," she blasted. "They did it to Commissioner [Arthur] Teele... I'm standing here right now to let you know they're doing it to me, but guess what? But guess what? They don't know this nappy-headed child of God has her armor on." She also accused Fernandez Rundle and Scruggs of conducting a "public lynching."
"It's sad that anybody should be thinking in those terms," Fernandez Rundle said during a press conference two hours after Spence-Jones returned home. "The credibility of the testimony [against Spence-Jones] will be addressed by a judge or a jury. We feel it will hold up."
It might seem that Spence-Jones, like Marion Barry, Dawkins, and others, is just playing the race card in the face of aggressive prosecution. But consider the following: She is the only black woman on the commission. Neither the governor nor the prosecutors are African-American — or have top black advisors. Even those flanking Rundle at the press conference announcing the indictment were white or Hispanic.
And this past May, law enforcers cleared Spence-Jones in four investigations for allegations of bribery, illegal kickbacks, and inappropriate influencing of personnel decisions. "No evidence," a prosecutor declared back then.
The only claim left is tenuous at best. "The state attorney is relying on witnesses who have personal grudges against Michelle and who have given inconsistent statements," says her attorney, Richard Alayon. "Yes, Michelle and her family put the money into one account, but at the end of the day, the money was used for its intended purpose: to renovate a crack house."
A Liberty City native, Spence-Jones burst onto Miami's political scene during the early part of the decade as a protégé of longtime Miami-Dade County Commissioner Barbara Carey-Shuler. She immediately attracted scrutiny. In 2003, after then-Miami Mayor Manny Diaz hired Spence-Jones to oversee grants for special events, she was reprimanded for using city phones and a city email address to promote a band she managed.
In 2005, shortly after Spence-Jones was elected the first time, the Florida Election Commission fined her $8,000 because she failed to report $24,000 paid to campaign workers and used for other expenses. The Miami-Dade ethics commission subsequently demanded $500 and reprimanded her when it discovered she did not disclose financial ties to a law firm where Diaz occasionally worked.
Then this past spring, prosecutors absolved Spence-Jones of claims she had forced a developer to hire Carey-Shuler and another confidante, Barbara Hardemon, for $100,000 in exchange for her city commission vote. At the time, a relieved Spence-Jones said, "It's been almost two years of headaches and heartaches, all based on innuendos and false allegations."
