Screenshot via City of Miami Commission meeting
Audio By Carbonatix
Editor’s note 10/28/25: This story has been edited to clarify that David and Leila Centner’s proposal to build a recreational center included a pledge to donate the facility to the city for public use, and to include a reference to the Broward State Attorney’s Office’s close-out memo in the case against Alex de la Portilla and William Riley Jr.
More than a year after ex-Miami city commissioner Alex Díaz de la Portilla and lobbyist William Riley Jr. were arrested in an alleged bribery scheme connected to a downtown project backed by Miami’s favorite anti-vax couple, David and Leila Centner, prosecutors have dropped the criminal charges against the two men.
In September 2023, Díaz de la Portilla and Riley were arrested and accused of seeking to channel thousands of dollars from the Centners into political committees controlled by the commissioner in connection with the couple’s proposal to donate $10 million to the city to build, on a parcel of city-owned land, a “state-of-the-art recreational facility…for the benefit of the City, its residents, and visitors,” as well as the couple’s school, the Centner Academy.
The Centners were not charged, nor were they accused of having knowledge of any alleged wrongdoing. But Riley and Diaz del la Portilla faced felony charges of bribery, money laundering, and unlawful compensation. In the wake of the corruption charges, Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended Díaz de la Portilla from his commission seat. The former commissioner pleaded not guilty in the case and steadfastly maintained his innocence. Riley likewise entered a not-guilty plea.
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On Wednesday (November 20), Broward County State Attorney Harold Pryor, who took over the case after the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office requested the investigation be reassigned to avoid a conflict of interest, announced that the charges would be dropped.
“After a substantial follow-up investigation and extensive depositions of witnesses, we have concluded that there is no reasonable likelihood of conviction,” Pryor wrote in a statement. “When the arrests were made, I promised that our prosecutors would pursue justice in this matter, and that is what we have done.”
In her close-out memo, Broward County Assistant State Attorney Kayla Bramnick concluded that “this case fails to meet the legal standards for prosecution. The evidence does not demonstrate corrupt intent, unlawful benefits, or falsification of records.”
Additionally, prosecutors determined that the Centners’ political contributions were “lawful and transparently documented,” and that there was “no evidence of corrupt intent, falsification, or quid-pro-quo arrangements” among any of the parties.
Riley had sought to upzone and amend land-use designations for properties abutting the Centner Academy campus in Miami’s Design District.
As New Times previously reported, the lobbyist lined up lucrative zoning changes for the Centners while appearing to be intoxicated during a July 2021 presentation to the Miami Planning, Zoning, and Appeals Board (PZAB).
A resurfaced video of the 2021 PZAB meeting appeared to show Riley slurring and stumbling over his sentences while presenting the rezoning proposal on behalf of the Centners.
