Where in the World Does Katharine Cue Live?

First, in 1993, a judge ordered a new election after determining camps for both Mayor Raul Martinez and challenger Nilo Juri had participated in absentee ballot tampering. Twelve years later, federal HUD officials investigated then-Hialeah Housing Authority director Alex Morales for forcing housing employees to campaign during working hours and...

By Francisco Alvarado

September 15, 2009

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First, in 1993, a judge ordered a new election after determining camps for both

Mayor Raul Martinez and challenger Nilo Juri had participated in absentee

ballot tampering. Twelve years later, federal HUD officials investigated

then-Hialeah Housing Authority director Alex Morales for forcing housing

employees to campaign during working hours and instructing building managers to

hand-deliver ballots with instructions on whom to vote for. Though the feds recommended Morales be put on administrative leave, it never happened. And he was never charged.

During that tumultuous election, 18-year-old Katharine

Cue voted for the first time. When she registered to vote September 28, 2005,

she listed her address at 360 W. 50th St. in Hialeah, a three-bedroom residence

owned by George and Teresita Fuente.

At the time, Cue's driver's license listed her address at 19195 Mystic Pointe Dr. in Aventura. That property is a two-bedroom condo owned by Cue's mother, a Hialeah city employee.

One year later, Hialeah Mayor Julio Robaina hired Cue as

an educational aide. Her employee contact information form and resumé showed

the Mystic Pointe condo as her home address. But on her employment application,

she wrote a third address: 874 W. Fourth St., in Hialeah, a three-bedroom house

owned by her maternal grandparents.

All of this became relevant last November 25, when the

city council appointed Cue to fill a slot vacated by Esteban Bovo, who was

elected state representative. Hialeah law requires council people to live in

the city.

Robaina insisted Cue was living in his city when she was appointed because the city clerk verified her residency despite the fact Cue own driver's license, her resume and her own hand-writing showed she lived in Aventura. "She would not have been appointed otherwise," he says. "The council would never have voted for her."

This past February 12, three months after the appointment, Cue changed her driver's license to reflect the 360 W. 50th St. address. Riptide stopped by the salmon-colored single-story abode shortly before 9 a.m. this past Friday.

A lanky gentleman with graying black hair said Cue, who is running for re-election this November, was asleep and to call her in 30 minutes. A half-hour later, Cue answered the residence's home phone.

So, she lives there.

Yes, she says. George Fuente is her father-in-law.

And what about the Aventura condo?

"That is a place I go to sometimes."

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Francisco Alvarado was born in Nicaragua and grew up in Miami, giving him unique insight into the Magic City and all its dark corners. An investigative reporter with a knack for uncovering corruption, Alvarado made his bones as a staff writer at Miami New Times and remains in dogged pursuit of the next juicy story.

Contact: Francisco Alvarado

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Twitter: @thefrankness