Miami’s state attorney hires an ethics expert as defense attorneys demand reforms
Facing allegations that rogue prosecutors operate freely in her office, Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle has hired the county ethics chief to join her leadership team, and is considering a request that she create a prosecution integrity unit.
Jose Arrojo, executive director of the Miami-Dade County Commission on Ethics and Public Trust, announced that he’s resigning, effective June 9, to rejoin Fernandez Rundle’s office.
“I have been afforded the opportunity to return to our State Attorney’s leadership team as Ms. Fernandez Rundle begins her ninth term in office and so I remain committed to serving the community,” Arrojo wrote in a May 7 resignation letter.
His job shift comes as the prosecutors’ office faces calls for reform. Leaders of the Miami chapter of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys met with the state attorney last week about what they describe as misconduct by prosecutors in criminal cases.
The defense lawyers are asking Fernandez Rundle to create a new unit, to be run by an outsider who has never worked in the office. The unit would examine convictions where misconduct has been alleged, would advise prosecutors on ethical issues in ongoing cases, and would field concerns from defense attorneys.
Lauren Field Krasnoff, president of the chapter, said she and president-elect Zena Duncan met with Fernandez Rundle on Thursday, and Arrojo also was in the meeting.
The Miami Herald’s questions to the State Attorney’s Office about the meeting, and about Arrojo’s new role went unanswered Monday. Arrojo said in an emailed response to the Herald that he will report directly to Fernandez Rundle, but his “exact duties and assignments” as a chief assistant state attorney have yet to be determined. In an internal announcement note, Fernandez Rundle said he’d “developed an expertise in ethical local governance” and would bring a “unique skill set” after providing ethics guidance and opinions to county and city officials, board members and employees in Miami-Dade.
Criticism of Fernandez Rundle’s office was inflamed by an embarrassing court episode in March, when a judge threw two prosecutors off a death penalty sentencing case because of their misconduct.
Krasnoff said the problems go beyond one or two prosecutors. She said she brought to the meeting more than a dozen specific examples of clear prosecutorial misconduct. She thought it went well, though no decisions were made.
“It was a good meeting,” Krasnoff said. “The State Attorney listened and was receptive to our view of the issues at her office.”
In a Sunday email to lawyers in her organization, she said she stressed that most of the issues had already been raised with the State Attorney’s Office, but that “rarely did prosecutors face consequences for their actions.”
She went on: “We also kept returning to our main point that the problem is bigger than these individual examples, and that it is the duty of the State Attorney’s Office to investigate and resolve the issues.”
She said Fernandez Rundle asked for 45 days to consider the proposals before meeting again.
Arrojo worked as a prosecutor in the office for more than 20 years, leaving in 2018 for the Commission on Ethics. A new state law passed this year by the Florida Legislature would severely limit the authority of ethics watchdogs like the one he operated, stripping them of the ability to launch their own investigations into potential public corruption and misdeeds. The law passed on March 7 but has remained motionless; it hasn’t been submitted to the governor for a signature.
