Dirty Dozen 2025: South Florida’s Most Shameful Characters

Every year, as children painstakingly enumerate their material wants alongside their virtuous bona fides in hopes that Santa will shower them with all their li’l hearts’ desires, Miami New Times is hard at work compiling a different sort of list.

We recall to mind those who, rather than bringing honor to South Florida, cause us to cringe at the sting of guilt by association.

Because what would the Magic City be without scams, heists, science denialism, assorted idiocy, and brawls over [checks notes] country club prime rib?

Those who made the cut made headlines for various degrees of alleged faux pas, from getting busted for kicking a duck on a college campus to hawking art forgeries to depriving the entire Sunshine State of tooth decay prevention.

Et freaking cetera.

Behold, listed alphabetically by shame bringer, New Times‘ Dirty Dozen Class of 2025.

The Asshole Who Kicked Ivan the UM Duck

While this list is rife with dastardly behavior, no perpetrator is quite as foul fowl as the unidentified asshole who assaulted Ivan the Muscovy duck on the University of Miami (UM) campus in August of 2025. As was first reported by the UM student newspaper, the Hurricane, campus police began investigating video footage of a person kicking the duck and a photo of another person grabbing what appeared to be the same duck by the wings on the Coral Gables campus. A social-media firestorm ensued. Everyone was certain the victim was Ivan, a campus celebrity beloved for his good nature. Many noted that the culprit was sporting the school’s colors and wore what appeared to be a UM-issued lanyard. Notably, Muscovy ducks are considered an invasive species in Florida. While they’re protected under the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service has issued a control order for the species, and UM has previously removed the birds from campus grounds. Coral Gables cops reportedly arrested the duck-kicker, whom they cited with a so-called promise to appear (a common approach for offenses deemed minor in the eyes of the law). The good news: Members of UPurr, UM’s cat lovers club, confirmed that Ivan was alive and well.

Mordechai Brafman 

On February 15, 2025, in a case of xenophobically induced mistaken identity, Mordechai Brafman, a 27-year-old Jewish Miami Beach resident, allegedly fired 17 rounds at a car, believing its occupants were Palestinian. Brafman’s intended victims — one of whom was shot in the shoulder, the other grazed on the arm — were actually two Israeli Jews visiting the U.S. Brafman, a plumber, was arrested on two counts of attempted murder. According to an incident report, he told investigators that “while he was driving his truck, he saw two Palestinians and shot and killed both.” Brafman’s attorney told New Times that his client “was experiencing a severe mental health emergency.” Court records indicate that the defense plans to plead not guilty by reason of insanity. Brafman, who spent time in a court-ordered mental health inpatient program, is now under monitored release pending trial.

Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick

During the pandemic, while the rest of us were streaming Tiger King and committing unspeakable crimes against sourdough, U.S. Rep. Cherfilus-McCormick was running Trinity Healthcare Services, a company the State of Florida retained to register people for vaccines. After Trinity invoiced the state for $50,000, someone did a tiny whoopsie and overpaid the firm by, oh, about $5.7 million. Rather than raising a red flag, Cherfilus-McCormick allegedly loaned herself $6.2 million for a 2022 congressional run. In June 2024, after the error was discovered, the state asked for its money back. Trinity demurred. A House Ethics Committee report later determined that the Broward congresswoman may have violated campaign-finance laws. Her 2026 challenger, Elijah Manley, called it “corruption” (which prompted her to sue him for defamation). In November, a federal grand jury indicted Cherfilus-McCormick on charges of stealing federal disaster-relief funds and laundering them into her campaign. Investigators also say she dropped roughly $109,000 on what seems to be a Tiffany & Co. yellow diamond. “Disaster relief,” but make it fashun!

Paul Fluty

In 2020, Paul Fluty was honored as “Officer of the Year” by the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office (formerly the Miami-Dade Police Department) for stopping criminals. Now, he’s accused of being one. Last September, only months after the sheriff’s office fired him for failing a drug test tied to a domestic violence case, the 39-year-old was arrested near Orlando for impersonating law enforcement. Police say he was essentially cosplaying as a cop, claiming to be a Miami-Dade officer working with the U.S. Marshals to search for a 13-year-old missing girl. “Google my name. I got officer of the year and everything,” he told Volusia County deputies before they whisked him off to jail. Following his arrest, Fluty told police he’d provided his old badge and credentials “out of habit” and “by mistake,” and that he’d “accidentally” claimed to be a police officer. Volusia County officials stated that they discovered documents indicating Fluty was working as a private investigator and may have been in the area in connection with an insurance case. He has pleaded not guilty; a trial date is pending.

Tyreek Hill 

Last year’s Dirty Dozen included Miami-Dade police officer Danny Torres, who hauled Miami Dolphins wideout Tyreek Hill out of his sports car outside of Hard Rock Stadium ahead of the Miami Dolphins’ 2024 home opener. Now the wide receiver will go down in history alongside Torres in the annals of local ignominy for his issues off the field. Even before Hill’s brutal, season-ending knee injury, it was a rough year for the man known as the Cheetah. Last April, the Sunny Isles Beach Police Department responded to a call about a domestic dispute at the Collins Avenue home of Hill and his wife, Keeta Vaccaro. Vaccaro’s mother told police that Hill had thrown her daughter’s laptop to the floor and taken their infant daughter out to a 35th-floor balcony. Footage of the incident later shared on social media showed Hill holding the baby. A day after the incident, Vaccaro filed for divorce. In a subsequent court filing, she alleged that Hill had been abusive to her on eight separate occasions over the course of their 17-month marriage, including while she was pregnant. Hill’s attorney dismissed the allegations as “unsubstantiated” and “untrue,” calling the court filing a “shakedown.” The NFL is reviewing the matter.

Michael Hudak

One of the fundamental principles of journalism is that a reporter shouldn’t be part of the story. Apparently, one Miami journalist missed that memo. Just weeks after covering the multimillion-dollar heist of Miami Heat memorabilia by a former security employee — for more about that crime, see Perez, Marcos Thomas, below — WPLG (Local10) reporter Michael Hudak became the subject of a theft investigation himself. In August, the 29-year-old was arrested for allegedly stealing his neighbor’s $16,000 Rolex while the neighbor was traveling in Spain. Police say Hudak later pawned the watch for $7,000 and admitted to the theft via text message, writing that “[i]t was a different version of me that took the watch.” WPLG suspended Hudak from his role without pay shortly after his arrest. Miami-Dade court documents indicate he has pleaded not guilty to all charges. The case is pending.

Joseph Ladapo

“What you put into your body is because of your relationship with your body and your God.” No, that’s not a megachurch pastor warming up the congregation; it’s Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo offering his extremely scientific, completely uncontroversial take on vaccine mandates. Last March, during a Miami-Dade Safety and Health Committee meeting, Ladapo called fluoride “neurotoxic” and “toxic to the thyroid,” and eight kids — mysteriously not in school on a Tuesday — parroted his claims. Never mind that the American Dental Association calls water fluoridation the single most effective tool to prevent tooth decay. By July, Florida became the second U.S. state to ban the addition of fluoride to public water systems. Then in September, Ladapo stood with Gov. Ron DeSantis to announce that he wants Florida to end all vaccine mandates. Politicians across the spectrum condemned the move as measles cases hit their highest levels since 2000, killing three unvaccinated people, including two children in Texas.

Marcos Tomas Perez

In a city full of schemers, a former police officer and Miami Heat employee may merit the dubious distinction of 2025’s most audacious thief. Marcos Tomas Perez stole millions of dollars’ worth of Heat game-worn jerseys and memorabilia and sold them to online brokers, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced in early August. A 25-year veteran of the Miami Police Department, Perez went to work for the National Basketball Association in 2022 as a security officer for the Heat. He worked game-day security at the Kaseya Center, where “he was among a limited number of trusted individuals with access to a secured equipment room,” according to a DOJ press release. Over the course of his tenure, Perez stole more than 400 game-worn jerseys and other items, flipping more than 100 of them for a total of nearly $2 million. “As an example, Perez sold a game-worn LeBron James Miami Heat NBA Finals jersey for approximately $100,000. That same jersey later sold at a Sotheby’s auction for $3.7 million,” according to the feds. Two weeks after he was charged, the 62-year-old defendant agreed to plead guilty to a single count of transporting stolen goods, though at this writing, the two sides are still wrangling about how much time the ex-cop ought to serve for his purloinings.

Leslie Roberts

A retired FBI agent who devoted his three-decade career to investigating art fraud worldwide told New Times that he’ll never forget Leslie Roberts, owner of the now-shuttered Miami Fine Art Gallery in Coconut Grove. The five-foot-three, toupee-topped art dealer and TikTok luminary has claimed to be a “native New Yorker turned Miami cultural icon” who studied art business and art history at New York University and interned at Sotheby’s. In the real world, however, Les Roberts grew up in Miami. After his mother shot and killed his father when he was 13, he went to live with his great-aunt and -uncle in Miami Lakes. He later enrolled at the University of Miami but dropped out after two semesters. He has two federal convictions on his résumé, one dating back to the 1980s for defrauding his great-uncle and another in 2015 for selling forged Peter Max artwork. In addition to a steady stream of lawsuits, Roberts is now facing wire-fraud and money-laundering charges for allegedly selling millions of dollars’ worth of forged Andy Warhol artworks. Federal prosecutors say Roberts told his victims that he purchased the pieces directly from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. An April 2025 criminal indictment alleges that one of his employees pretended to work for an international auction house to authenticate the fakes. Despite strict bail conditions that barred him from selling art, Roberts operated an art gift shop just 400 feet away from his gallery, which was shuttered last year after the FBI raided it. After New Times reported on Roberts’ Miami Fine Art Gallery Gift Shop, Roberts transformed the store into Labubu Headquarters, peddling the popular Chinese collectibles. Six days after New Times shared news of that new hustle, Labubu Headquarters announced on Instagram that the store would be moving. “Stay tuned, Labubu lovers,” the post reads. “We’re cooking up something exciting. Our new location is coming soon —can’t wait to see you all again. The account has not posted since.

James Uthmeier

When he wasn’t railing against vaccines, endorsing other conservatives for office, or posting about nabbing child predators, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier spent the summer bullying local police departments into signing immigration enforcement agreements. For months, the prolific social media warrior took to X (formerly Twitter) to threaten lawsuits against South Florida cities that did not sign the federal 287(g) agreement, which provides training and authority for local officers to act as deportation agents. Uthmeier spent months threatening to sue municipalities like South Miami (which filed an ill-fated lawsuit seeking to thwart the state’s overreach) and Key West. Uthmeier enjoyed other extracurricular activities during his first year as attorney general, including tweeting several times a day from his personal and official accounts — to disparage, among countless other evils, the popular online kids’ game Roblox and the sinister DEI practices at Starbucks (for which the state sued the caffeine colossus).