On Monday morning, North Miami Councilman (and mayoral candidate) Philippe Bien-Aime will face the music in Circuit Court Judge Rodney Smith’s courtroom.

We have a feeling it won’t be pretty.

The Miami Herald reported on Friday that Judge Smith slapped Bien-Aime with an Order of Default for failing to appear at a hearing scheduled for Wednesday, May 1, 2019 in the case of Janice Antoine v. Philippe Bien-Aime.

On February 5, 2019, North Miami employee Janice Antoine filed a lawsuit against the Councilman alleging assault and sexual harassment.  Ms. Antoine also filed a similar lawsuit against Bien-Aime and the City of North Miami in U.S District Court last summer, which case is still pending.

Bien-Aime’s excuse for not showing up?

He claims he never got the summons.

At least that’s the story “according to an affidavit filed by his attorneys Friday along with an emergency motion asking the judge to overturn the default judgment,” as reported by the Miami Herald.

According to the article, “The summons was actually served to his son on March 1, who “was never told of the importance of the documents, only to ‘give them to your father,’ ” according to the affidavit.  His son, who is 15 years or older according to court records, never told Bien-Aime about the documents, Bien-Aime said, and nothing ever came in the mail.”

A Return of Service was filed with the Court on March 6, 2019 by the process server, who stated that on March 1, 2019 at 8:50 pm, she served the “Civil Action Summons (20 Day) & Complaint and Demand for Jury Duty” to Philjae Bien-Aime, son of the defendant at his home located at 70 NE 134 Street, North Miami, Florida 33161, noting that the son is “fifteen (15) years or older” and that she informed him of its contents.

This was a perfectly legal and proper service according to Florida Statute 48.031 (1)(a), which states, “Service of original process is made by delivering a copy of it to the person to be served with a copy of the complaint, petition, or other initial pleading or paper or by leaving the copies at his or her usual place of abode with any person residing therein who is 15 years of age or older and informing the person of their contents.  Minors who are or have been married shall be served as provided in this section.”

We suspect that Bien-Aime is going to have a hard time convincing Judge Smith that his 15 year old son simply decided to ignore an important court document – hand-delivered to his home, no less – and never mentioned a single word to his father.

Even less believable is his claim that he “never received any mailed notices of court filings because his address was incorrect on the documents,” according to the Miami Herald.

The 20 Day Summons filed on February 11, 2019 along with the Complaint clearly states Philippe Bien-Aime’s address as 776 NE 125th Street, Second Floor, North Miami, Florida 33161 – which is the address of North Miami City Hall, and where Bien-Aime has an office.

In addition, the Notice of Hearing for the May 1, 2019 court date was served via U.S. Mail to Mr. Bien-Aime home address, 70 NE 134 Street, North Miami, Florida 33161 on March 29, 2019 – more than one month before the hearing date.

Yeah, we’re having trouble believing his story, too.

Especially since he’s done it before.

The Miami Herald reported, “This isn’t the first time Bien-Aime lost a case for not showing up to court.  In 2010, Bien-Aime failed to show up for a pretrial hearing in small claims court in Broward County, resulting in a $2,838.01 default judgment against him.”

Here’s the thing.

As we stated in a previous blog, we have absolutely no way of knowing whether or not Janice Antoine’s allegations are true.  So far it appears that only she and Mr. Bien-Aime know what may or may not have happened.

In the Federal Court case, U.S. District Judge Ursula Ungaro found that “Plaintiff has adequately indicated what facts support her causes of actions,” and issued an Order denying the city’s Motion to Dismiss.  Due to the sensitive nature of the allegations, we here at VotersOpinion will not comment or opine on that lawsuit until the Court issues a final ruling.

That being said, however, Mr. Bien-Aime didn’t do himself any favors by refusing to answer the charges made against him.  Whether or not the allegations are true, Mr. Bien-Aime had the obligation to respond to the summons and mount a defense.  Instead, he and his city-appointed lawyers chose to ignore the whole thing altogether.

More importantly, by offering preposterous excuses for not showing up to a court hearing for a lawsuit he admitted knowing about “since early February,” he has severely damaged his own credibility.  The manner in which Councilman Bien-Aime has conducted himself so far speaks volumes about his character.

Or lack thereof.

In fact, it certainly appears that Mr. Bien-Aime was merely attempting to delay this case from moving forward until after the May 14th election in order to keep it from derailing his mayoral campaign.  If that is indeed the case, he’s only making things worse.

Definitely not a good look, Councilman.

Not a good look at all.

Stephanie