Former Florida state senate Frank Artiles was arrested Thursday for allegedly violating election laws in last year’s senate race.
Local channel WSVN reports that Artiles is facing multiple charges, including illegal campaign contributions.
Katherine Fernandez Rundle, Miami-Dade state attorney, has claimed that Artiles planted a shadow candidate in Florida Senate District 37 election to defeat Democratic incumbent José Javier Rodriguez.
“What a crime is to make illegal campaign contributions to get a candidate at the helm,” said Fernandez Rundle.
When voters cast their votes last November, Republican candidate Ileana Garcia, Democratic incumbent José Javier Rodriguez and Alex Rodriguez were shown as candidates, WSVN reports. Investigators allege that Artiles put Alex Rodriguez in the running in the hope that voters would be confused and thus votes would be taken away from the Democratic candidate.
According to WSVN, the arrest warrant claims that Artiles paid Alex Rodriguez $ 44,000 to run in the election. Artiles reportedly started his election plot in August when he first contacted Rodriguez on Facebook.
Artiles’s arrest comes one day after authorities raided his home and took several boxes of evidence.
William Barzee – Rodriguez’s attorney, who was also arrested – seemed to admit the plot, blame Artiles, and suggest that the former state legislature had abused his client.
“Frank Artiles and his co-conspirators knew they couldn’t beat Jose Javier Rodriguez in fair elections, so they rigged it up,” Barzee told WSVN. Artiles took a cynical attitude and used a vulnerable ‘friend’ with a great name to confuse voters and steal the election. Alex Rodriguez deeply regrets letting himself be used in this way and hopes that he will continue with the truth. can help rectify these mistakes. “
Artiles resigned from the Florida State Senate in 2017 after using the n word in a conversation with black colleagues. Artiles had spoken about how Senate President Joe Negron was elected GOP leader, saying that “six n ——” had elected Negron. It is unclear who Artiles was referring to, as there were no black members of the GOP Florida caucus when Artiles made his comments.