MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Miami-Dade prosecutors announced Friday that they’ve made another arrest in a yearslong, ongoing investigation into the Hammocks Community Association.
Authorities booked Kevin Leonardo Alzate, 32, the cousin of former homeowners association president Marglli Gallego, into the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center Friday afternoon. He’s facing charges of perjury by contradictory statements, fabricating physical evidence and resisting an officer without violence.
Gallego, along with Monica Ghilardi, Jose Antonio Gonzalez, Myriam Rodgers and Yoleidis Lopez, were previously arrested in the case. They’re accused of stealing more than $1 million and were past or present board members at the time of their arrests.
Residents had expressed outrage about the southwest Miami-Dade HOA for years and the issue got the attention of Cuban singer Willy Chirino, who, in 2022, called for an investigation into the HOA after questions were raised about elections, the arrest of its former president for theft, and a notable increase in fees.
Alzate was an “integral part” of a scheme to create “several years of legal delays” that were “designed to avoid producing the required financial documents necessary to facilitate the criminal investigation despite judicial orders to do so,” a news release from the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office states.
Prosecutors accuse Alzate of providing notarized affidavits demanding money from law enforcement, which he then used to justify not cooperating with legal requests from law enforcement; the HOA supported the expenses of producing the documents by submitting sworn, notarized affidavits.
“The HOA’s attorneys also repeatedly represented to circuit court judges that Alzate was the custodian of records,” prosecutors said. “During a rule to show cause hearing against Alzate as the custodian of records for failure to produce HOA records, he swore that he was not and had never, in fact, handled production of document requests for the HOA.”
“Mr. Alzate’s affidavits contributed to lengthy delays in the investigation, excessive and frivolous litigation, and obstruction resulting in further victimization of the innocent members of the Hammocks community,” the news release states.
In a statement, Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle called Alzate’s actions a “deliberate slap in the face” to the court system and judges and allowed the HOA board members to “continue their thefts.”
Alzate appeared in a Miami-Dade courtroom Saturday where a judge set his bond at $11,000 and ordered him to surrender his passport.