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As the Miami Police Department (MPD) investigates claims that four police officers received Rolex watches from former Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, records reveal that two of the officers were quietly demoted last month.
A week before Miami resident Thomas Kennedy filed a complaint alleging that Suarez gifted the high-end luxury watches to his former sergeants-at-arms, Pierre Cazassus, Yamil Martinez Sanchez, Stanley J. Paul-Noel, and Andrea Preston before leaving office, two of the officers — Cazassus and Paul-Noel — were demoted, resulting in a pay cut. Department records show they are now assigned to the intelligence and terrorism unit within the criminal investigations division.
In the City of Miami, sergeants-at-arms provide security to the commissioners and mayor.
An inter-office memorandum for Paul-Noel reads, “In accordance with Civil Services Rules and Regulations, you are rolled back to your previous civil service classification of Police Officer effective December 17, 2025.” His pay was docked from his sergeant-at-arms annual salary of $181,431 to an hourly rate of $32.
For Cazassus, also previously classified as a sergeant-at-arms, the inter-office memorandum states, “In accordance with Civil Service Rules and Regulations, you are rolled back to your previous civil service classification of Police Sergeant effective December 17, 2025.” His pay was docked from $218,139 annually to an hourly rate of $65.
The transfers are permanent, an MPD spokesperson wrote to New Times in an emailed statement, adding, “We cannot confirm long-term or future status of any employee.” They also noted that MPD had opened an investigation into the allegations.
Rolex watches can cost upwards of $100,000, depending on the model and whether they were purchased on the secondary market. MPD departmental rules prohibit officers from accepting or soliciting gifts to prevent corruption and bribery.
“Employees will refuse to accept any gifts, presents, subscriptions, favors, gratuities, or promises that could be interpreted as seeking to cause the employees to refrain from performing official responsibilities honestly and within the law,” one of the rules reads.
While Suarez ignored New Times’ requests for comment, he told the Miami Herald that he had given “a gift” to the sergeant as a “token of appreciation.”
“Toward the end of my tenure as Mayor, during the holiday season, I chose to give a gift to my sergeant-at-arms as a personal expression of thanks for their many years of dedication to protecting me and my family,” Suarez said in his statement. “These gifts were purchased with my own personal funds, in recognition of the time and sacrifices they made — often away from their own families — in service to mine. They were intended solely as a token of appreciation and gratitude, and nothing more. I am disappointed that this gesture has been characterized as anything other than that.”
Last week, Kennedy sent a follow-up email, alleging that Suarez also gifted Sergeant-at-Arms Alexander Lamprou a Rolex, but he had declined. Lamprou did not respond to New Times‘ text messages or phone calls.
