Defense in Artiles election conspiracy trial portrays ghost candidate as scam artist

MIAMI — State prosecutors last week portrayed a ghost candidate who may have tilted a close election as a cog in a Republican plot to steal a Florida Senate seat that was orchestrated by a politician-turned-lobbyist. This week, defense attorneys argued he was a conniving con artist who stole tens of thousands of dollars from the former state senator who recruited him.

Alexis Rodriguez — a late entry third-party candidate in a hotely contested 2929 race in which the heavily favored Democratic incumbent lost — told jurors this week that his finances were so dire while being recruited by former Republican State Sen. Frank Artiles, that he lied attempting to enrich himself through Artiles and his connections.

Under questioning from defense attorney Frank Quintero in the second week of Artiles’ election-conspiracy trial, Rodriguez conceded that Artiles recorded all their deals in a ledger and that the former state senator considered $31,000 in cash and gifts that he gave Rodriguez, as loans.

During a full day of questioning Monday, Rodriguez did manage to stick to the story he told prosecutors last week: That he considered compensation received from Artiles as payments on $50,000 promised to him if he entered the race for District 37, then a swath that ran through the heart of Miami-Dade County from Miami Beach south to Cutler Bay.

But Rodriguez also admitted using a second driver’s license with an address in the district where he no longer lived in order to vote in elections in 2016, 2018 and 2020. And that he doctored a page on a website for Belen Jesuit Preparatory, the private high school Rodriguez attended, by misrepresenting how far he went in college and his current job situation.

The witness also admitted to trying to scam Artiles by doctoring a bank statement to show the company he worked for had $20 million in a bank account during negotiations with Artiles and his contacts in a plan to buy Personal Protective Equipment early on during the pandemic.

And, Rodriguez told jurors, in exchange for testimony against Artiles, a pair of felony charges against Rodriguez in the election-conspiracy case were dropped and possible jail time was reduced to probation and house arrest.

“It certainly didn’t make me feel good,” Rodriguez told Quintero about how he misrepresented himself to Artiles. Asked if he believed the money and gifts the former state senator directed his way were a repayment or loans, Rodriguez said it didn’t matter.

“I don’t know what his mindset was,” Rodriguez told Quintero. “I just needed to get money.”

Last week on the witness stand, prosecutors portrayed Rodriguez as a down-on-his-luck acquaintance of Artiles, who was unexpectedly contacted by the former state senator and enticed to run in the Florida Senate District 37 race in exchange for $50,000. This week Artiles’s lawyers tried to impeach the unlikely candidate and convince jurors that Rodriguez lied repeatedly to Artiles and that the truck machine parts salesman from Boca Raton was just trying to soak Artiles for as much money as possible.

A razor-thin Republican victory

Artiles, 51, was charged with election-conspiracy violations just over a year after Rep. Ileana Garcia’s unexpected 2020 victory over Democratic favorite Jose Javier Rodriguez for the Senate seat.

Alexis Rodriguez, who had the same last name as the incumbent and a driver’s license showing he lived in the district, garnered more than 6,000 votes in the election. He testified last week that the votes cast for him were won dishonestly and he had entered the race for the money.

Prosecutors say Artiles randomly contacted Rodriguez, convincing him to run after telling him he’d be coached and didn’t have to campaign. Prosecutors say Artiles offered Alexis Rodriguez $50,000 in two installments to go through with the plan.

The state is arguing that the Republican three-term member of the Florida House and one-term senator made illegal campaign contributions and encouraged Alex Rodriguez to commit perjury. They contend Rodriguez received $44,708.03 in cash and gifts from Artiles, who resigned from the Senate in 2017 after using racial slurs in a heated discussion with two Black senators at a Tallahassee club.

Artiles is facing charges of excessive campaign contributions, conspiracy to make excessive campaign contributions, falsely swearing an oath and lying on a campaign form. His defense attorneys say he was a stooge to to Rodriguez’s con and have been attempting to portray Rodriguez as the architect of a plot to bleed Artiles of tens of thousands of dollars.

The alleged shenanigans resulted in a razor thin 32-vote victory for controversial Republican Ileana Garcia, who once said she believed people could outgrow being gay — she later apologized — and who also authored a bill to spend $5 million on former President Donald Trump’s legal bills.

Javier Rodriguez now works as an assistant secretary for the Labor Department in Washington. Ileana Garcia is not accused of any wrongdoing.

Three years ago, Alexis Rodriguez pleaded guilty to two campaign-finance charges and agreed to six months of house arrest and three years of probation in exchange for testimony at Artiles’ trial.

Last week, a rarely seen political operative who owns a North Florida marketing and research firm called Data Targeting testified about being contacted to help find boots on the ground in South Florida for opposition research that could boost Garcia’s chance of winning the 2020 seat.

A lobbyist later explained how she witnessed Artiles bragging at a North Florida bar about how he engineered Garcia’s win, during a victory party for another candidate. She also said she refused Artiles’ effort to get her to sign an affidavit saying she didn’t discuss the incident with the media, because, she told jurors, she witnessed Artiles’ actions.

‘I lied to him’

On Monday, near the end of an entire day of badgering by defense attorneys trying to make Artiles’ case, Alexis Rodriguez told jurors he had no intention of returning any of the $13,000 he received in three cash payments from the former senator. He also said he didn’t plan on returning $17,600 in benefits received from Artiles.

Some of that money was to cover tuition fees owed by Alexis Rodriguez to his daughter’s private high school. The school was holding back her transcripts until the debt was paid.

The rest was to be used to purchase a Range Rover for Artiles’ daughter’s birthday. Alexis Rodriguez had told Artiles he found a good deal nearby and would deliver the truck. He also sent Artiles the truck’s VIN to prove he saw the vehicle

“I lied to him,” Alexis Rodriguez told jurors. “The transaction wasn’t true.”