In response to our public records request, the Town of Bay Harbor Islands provided us with a complete copy of the Police Department’s Internal Affairs investigation of Corporal Pablo Lima, which resulted in his being cleared of all wrongdoing.
As we previously reported, the Bay Harbor Islands Police Department opened an investigation of Corporal Lima after Miami Herald reporter Aaron Leibowitz filed a complaint that “Corporal Lima ‘Liked’ several posts made on his personal and his wife’s social media pages” about alleged “anti-Muslim” comments Hallandale Beach Commissioner Anabelle Lima-Taub made back in January of 2019.
Needless to say, the file proves to be very interesting.
Equally, if not more interesting, are the documents I received from a second public records request for copies of all correspondences between Mr. Leibowitz and any Bay Harbor Islands public officials, some of which precedes the complaint he filed on January 16, 2020.
We’ll start at the beginning and show you how this whole manipulated scheme played out in chronological order.
- On January 15, 2020 at 12:24 pm, reporter Aaron Leibowitz sent an email to Bay Harbor Islands Town Manager J.C. Jimenez and the Town Clerk requesting, “a list of applicants for the police chief position, as well as the full applications (resumes, cover letters, etc.) submitted by each candidate.”
- At 12:55 pm, the Town Clerk replied via email stating, “Mr. Leibowitz, I have received your request. However, due to the fact that most of the applicants are likely to be police officers or previous law enforcement, there will be information that needs to be redacted. I’m not sure how many applicants we have, so I’ll be able to give you a better estimate on the time once I have that information. Please know that having this ready to you by tomorrow doesn’t seem feasible, especially since we are still accepting applications until the end of the day today.”
- At 12:58 pm, Mr. Leibowitz emailed her back, “Thank you for your response! In the interest of time, could you please provide the full list of applicants and then provide the application materials for only one applicant: Pablo Lima. After that, I can let you know if I still need the application materials for the other applicants.”
At that point, Miami Herald reporter Aaron Liebowitz tipped his hand that he had absolutely no interest in the Town’s search for a new Chief of Police – his only goal was to smear Corporal Pablo Lima for some nefarious reason.
We know this because approximately 15 minutes later at 1:15 pm, Leibowitz emailed Town Manager Jimenez a complaint against Corporal Pablo Lima, in which he stated:
Seven minutes later at 1:22 pm, Leibowitz sent an email to Bay Harbor Islands Mayor Stephanie Bruder (who’s mother got free water under the BHI Friends & Family Plan), with the message, “Hi Mayor Bruder, The town manager confirmed to me that Pablo Lima applied yesterday for the role of police chief. I just shared the following message with the manager about social media posts:”, then copied the complaint he just filed with the Town Manager.
The timing and the precision with which Leibowitz fired off all of these emails only proves that this was a well planned out, calculated maneuver designed to destroy the life and career of a police officer with whom he previously had no knowledge of or contact with whatsoever.
Which means he did not do this alone.
As we already explained in The attempted takedown of Corporal Pablo Lima, and the Miami Herald reporter who got played, there is absolutely no way any Facebook post made by Corporal Lima, or which comments he “liked,” just randomly “caught his attention.”
We’re pretty confident that he didn’t wake up one morning and say to himself, “I have absolutely no idea who Pablo Lima is, what police department he works for, or even if he’s going to apply to be a police chief, but I better troll his Facebook page for questionable “likes” so I can make sure he doesn’t get the job.”
No, it’s a sure bet that someone with a very personal agenda gave him Pablo Lima’s name, spoon fed him information he’d been compiling for a year, and then enticed the reporter to do his own dirty work with promises of international recognition.
Once Town Manager J.C. Jimenez received Aaron Leibowitz’ complaint, according to Florida law, he had no choice but to forward the complaint to the appropriate authorities.
The next morning on January 16, 2020 at 10:51 am, the Town Clerk sent an email to Leibowitz in response to his public records request, and attached the list of applicants and Corporal Lima’s application package.
At 11:02 am that same day, the Town Manager emailed Leibowitz to thank him for the information spelled out in his complaint, to which the reporter replied 48 minutes later at 11:50 am, “No problem. I am expecting to finish a story on this by tomorrow, so please let me know if you would like to comment or if any action is taken in response.”
We find it very interesting that Leibowitz had already began writing his “news” story – the one he created – long before he was even aware – allegedly – that Corporal Lima had applied for the position of Chief of Police.
Meanwhile, in an email sent at 11:54 am, the Town Manager forwarded Leibowitz’ complaint to Police Chief Sean Hemingway and attorney Brett Schneider, asking them to “take a look at the email below regarding one of our police officers (he has applied for the chief position).” By 4:06 pm, the Chief forwarded the complaint to Bay Harbor Islands Police Lieutenant Curtis Johnson requesting that he “open an IA investigation on this.”
At 2:55 pm, according to an email from the Bay Harbor Islands Media Department, Leibowitz received unspecified documents.
At 3:16 pm, Leibowitz emailed the Town Clerk requesting “the complete personnel file for Pablo Lima, including any complaints and internal affairs investigations.” Three minutes later at 3:19 pm, the Town Clerk replied, “Again, this is going to take me a while to make sure I redact all exempt information. I can give a better time estimate once I see the size of the file.” A minute later at 3:20 pm, Leibowitz responded, “Absolutely, understood. I wouldn’t expect this one to be turned around right away. Thanks.”
Three quarters of an hour later at 4:01 pm, Leibowitz emailed the Media Department and the Town Manager with, “Thanks. Could you please clarify for me: Why is [Police Chief] Sean Hemingway leaving? Is he retiring? Taking another job? Also, when is his last day as the chief in Bay Harbor Islands and what year did he start in that role? Thanks so much.”
Without even waiting for a response, two minutes later at 4:03 pm, Leibowitz again emailed them to ask, “And one more question, if you can answer it: Is Pablo Lima still a candidate for the position? Thank you.”
And although he only learned seven hours earlier that Corporal Pablo Lima had applied for the position of Chief of Police, and …
Although six hours earlier he emailed that he was “expecting to finish a story on this by tomorrow,” and …
Although he had not even received a response to his “burning” questions, …
At 6:09 pm, Miami Herald reporter Aaron Leibowitz emailed the Bay Harbor Islands Media Department and Town Manager J. C. Jimenez that:
It seems pretty clear to us that Miami Herald reporter Aaron Leibowitz had written his #FakeNews story long before he engineered its outcome.
But this saga is far from over.
In Part 2 we will show you exactly how Aaron Leibowitz manipulated the so-called evidence he presented to the Town Manager to back up his complaint against Corporal Pablo Lima…
And how Miami Herald Senior Editor Dave Wilson is trying to cover for him.
Stay tuned.
Stephanie
It looks that this reporter, Aaron Liebowitz, could be an expert in getting you in trouble, and this what this reporter did to Pablo Lima, a honourable man whose reputation goes back many years of great service at the police department. This reporter’s intention was malisciously intended to wipe out Pablo from any running campaign by seeking for political arguments to incriminate Pablo from wroing doing, but fortunately after being investigated by internal affairs he got exonorated. Wow, how could a lie ends with your honour and good reputation in one second just because someone’s purpose is intentionally defiatiant and malicious. No one is denying that Pablo Lima could have pressed the the “liked” bottom over his wife’s comments on the media, but this is nothing wrong because he never said anything wrong against any race, creed, religion, sexual tendency and etc. Undoubtedly, this is a witch-hunt from Anabelle’s political enemies. This must be stopped because this action might hunt them back at any given time…Karma is a bitch!!!
I agree: “all warfare (including ANTI—SEMITISM) is created by deception,” especially when a “Fake News Story” appears with Corporal Pablo Lima” allegedly bringing “Hallandale Politics” into our peaceful and beautiful (BHI) “Small Town?
At this same time, isn’t it a coincidence that (1). Our Town Attorney resigns ($4.2M of allegedly (BHI) Taxpayers’ money missing), and (2). Two extremely large Mixed-Use Development Site Plans were recently approved: NO Council vote for approval of “Church by the Sea” Development Site Plan, and with (1) one Council member found at his own party, only (3) three Council member votes approved the 1177 Kane Concourse Project (2.2 acres with allegedly giving away Public Municipal land)?
This is despicable. The “reporter” for the Herald should be fired. He used his position as a reporter to undertake a personal attack against Officer Lima, not reporting but with an agenda. That’s not journalism, that’s political slander.