MIAMI – A Miami-Dade jury found former Florida Sen. Frank Artiles guilty of three of four counts against him in his criminal case Monday evening.
After a few hours of deliberations, jurors found Artiles guilty of making campaign contributions in excess of $1,000, conspiring to make campaign contributions over $1,000 and procuring the falsification of a candidate oath form. They found him not guilty of procuring the falsification of a voter registration form.
Prosecutors accused the Republican of spearheading a scheme made to confuse Florida Senate District 37 voters with a no-party “ghost candidate,” named Alex Rodríguez, running against then-Democratic incumbent, Florida Sen. Jose Javier Rodríguez and Republican candidate Ileana García.
Rodríguez ran in the election in exchange for $50,000. He testified that he was offered $25,000 before the election and another $25,000 to be paid out after.
Prosecutors alleged Artiles committed felony campaign fraud while directing a ploy to confuse Florida voters who intended to choose the Democrat. They pointed to a string of business deals, such as the proposed sale of personal protective equipment that never panned out, saying the deals were just a cover.
Defense attorneys had emphasized that supporting a ghost candidate is not illegal and that jurors should set aside their feelings about the scheme.
The defense said it was Rodriguez who lied and coerced Artiles to provide him with cash.
In a statement following the verdict, Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said, in part, that it was “clear” that jurors “understood the State’s evidence” and “determined that Frank Artiles was not only the mastermind of the ‘ghost candidate’ candidate scandal but violated Florida’s campaign finance and election laws in order to do it.”
The convictions, she said, “show that the jurors agreed that we cannot tolerate the violation of our laws just to gain a political advantage.”
“They weighed all the evidence, heard all the testimony, and decided that Frank Artiles was guilty,” Fernandez Rundle said.
Artiles’ attorney, Frank Quintero, is promising an appeal.
“So this is going to be a long fight, we are going to be up on appeal, there’s going to be post-trial motions, we have sentencing issues, so the fight is not over,” he said.
The defense is requesting a pre-sentence investigation, so all parties will be back in court on Oct. 21. A sentencing date will be scheduled afterward.