City Bites Dog

Plantation police Det. Joe Quaregna is investigating the complaint of a Miami woman who detailed how Marks, who published her book Miami Psychic under the fake name Regina Milbourne, wrung $3,200 out of her after convincing her that she had a curse on her family [see "Psych Job," July 13, and "Psych Job, Part 2," August 3].

Once Quaregna got involved, so did Marks' lawyer, Jim Lewis. The two parties signed an agreement last week in which Marks promised to repay the woman the $3,200 (another $450 given to Marks by the woman's mother-in-law wasn't included). Included in the agreement is a promise from the victim that she'll drop the criminal case.

The woman is happy to be getting her money back and credits New Times with making it possible. The downside is that Marks remains free to bilk more "clients."

"We have no charges, but I'm going to drop by Marks' house and let her know that we're watching her," Quaregna says. "We don't want her doing this any more in our city."

There may still, however, be trouble in the future for the author, whose sham book was published by HarperCollins, a giant New York publishing house that continues to market Miami Psychic as "non-fiction." The Hollywood Police Department is seeking a warrant for her arrest on a jewelry theft charge. It sent a request for the warrant to the State Attorney's Office in January. Our prosecutors, as they always do, have sat on the case for months, though SAO spokesman Ron Ishoy claims his agency is "actively investigating" the case.

We'll see.

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Speaking of the listless State Attorney's Office, I got a call from corruption prosecutor John Hanlon last week. Out of respect for an ongoing criminal investigation, I'm not going to go into detail on the call, but suffice it to say it concerned Dorsey Miller, the former North Broward Hospital District commissioner.

I wrote an investigative article two years ago about Miller's acceptance of more than $100,000 from a Miami company called American Medical Depot. At the same time that Miller was receiving checks from AMD, he was steering multimillion-dollar hospital district contracts to the firm.

In Florida, that kind of thing is called unlawful compensation, and it's a third-degree felony. The Florida Supreme Court has ruled repeatedly that all that is needed to prosecute such cases is circumstantial evidence to show that a "meeting of minds" was made between Miller and AMD that he would drum up business for the company at the district.

Hanlon has been "investigating" the case for more than two years. More like sitting on it. In that time, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who appointed Miller, has already removed him from the NBHD board as a result of the newspaper's findings. But don't expect Hanlon to file any charges when he's finished. And that's the fault of Hanlon as much as it is State Attorney Michael Satz, who has made a long and successful career in Broward County as a staunch defender of the powerful and shameless exploiter of the powerless.

Satz has an abysmal record in prosecuting public corruption and is probably as responsible as anyone for the area's reputation as a sleazy backwater full of politicians on the take. Hanlon, a former FBI agent, simply follows Satz's lead, I'm afraid.

I've criticized both men in print before, a fact Hanlon told me rather pointedly that he hasn't forgotten.

"I have Irish Alzheimer's," he told me. "I only remember my grudges."

But he says he puts the criticism in perspective.

"I've had a guy stand over me trying to shoot my balls off," he said. "So I've dealt with worse."

That's a reference to the infamous FBI shootout with two heavily armed bank robbers near the Suniland shopping center in Miami back in 1986. Two agents, Jerry Dove and Ben Grogan, were killed. Hanlon was one of five agents who was injured during the shootout.

I have a lot of respect for Hanlon for his FBI service and believe his actions that day made him a bona fide American hero.

But I still wish his boss, Satz, had some balls when it comes to prosecuting public corruption.