BETTY CORTINA and DEXTER FILKINS Herald Staff Writers

A state judge on Monday threw out the election of Hialeah Mayor Raul Martinez , ruling that "overzealous" and "unscrupulous" campaign workers forged so many absentee ballots as to taint the entire vote. The ruling, by Dade Circuit Judge Sidney Shapiro, declared the mayoral election of Nov. 9, 1993, invalid and called for new elections in 30 days. His order threw Hialeah's government into chaos, leaving unclear exactly who is in charge.

Martinez, re-elected last year while still a convicted felon , refused to leave office Monday, saying he would stay until the new elections. Nilo Juri, the losing mayoral candidate who sued after the election, claimed the city charter requires Martinez to step down. That would make Council President Herman Echevarria the acting mayor.

A court battle over who is really mayor could come as early as today.

"I will continue to do my work," Martinez said. "I have something to offer the city as long as the city wants me."

Shapiro's order landed like a bombshell on the eve of Election Day. Federal prosecutors are completing a huge investigation in which they are expected to charge more than a dozen individuals with voter fraud, according to sources close to the case. Charges are expected against people who engaged in absentee-ballot fraud, voted more than once in the same election or voted in different elections around Dade in the same year, the sources said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Bruce Udolf, chief of the public corruption unit, refused to comment on the case Monday.

U.S. Attorney Kendall Coffey announced last week that he is assigning federal agents to monitor today's elections for ballot fraud.

"We want to send a strong message," Coffey said.

In his six-page order, Shapiro concluded that a "substantial number" of Hialeah ballots were fraudulent -- enough to call into question the validity of the election.

"The evidence presented has convinced this court there has been substantial fraud which adversely affected the sanctity of the ballot and the integrity of the November 9th election process," the judge wrote.

The ruling brought jubilation from Juri, who beat Martinez at the voting box last year only to lose by 273 votes after the absentee ballots were counted. Juri had asked Shapiro to throw out just the absentee ballots -- which he claimed were tainted -- and declare him the winner. He said Monday he was happy just the same and that he looked forward to running for mayor again.

"The judge did the right thing," Juri said. "I want to be mayor because of what I stand for. I don't want to be mayor just for the fact that Raul is a crook."

At the time of last year's election, Martinez had been convicted in federal court of shaking down developers in exchange for favorable action at City Hall. His conviction was later thrown out on appeal, and a new trial is expected next year.

Martinez took Monday's ruling as a vindication, on the ground that the judge said there was no evidence he was personally involved in election fraud. He said he hasn't decided yet whether to run again, or whether to appeal Shapiro's order.

"The judge clearly decided that Raul Martinez and the opponent were not involved directly or indirectly with fraud. That's what I have been saying all along," Martinez said.

Martinez's refusal to step down left unclear exactly who is now mayor. City Attorney Alex Vilarello said Martinez is mayor until the next election.

But the question apparently isn't settled. Shapiro's order states explicitly that Martinez's election was "invalid." The city charter says that if the mayor is forced to leave office, then the council president -- in this case, Echevarria -- is to become acting mayor.

Juri called on Martinez to step down. If he doesn't, Juri vowed to go to court.

Elections are rarely thrown out for fraud in Florida, but it has happened on occasion. Just two years ago, a judge in Hardee County ordered new elections after investigators discovered that people who lived outside the county had cast absentee ballots in the sheriff's race.

Shapiro's order caps a two-month-long trial in which Juri and his lawyers introduced widespread evidence of fraud in the absentee ballot process. A Juri handwriting expert testified that signatures on 198 absentee ballots were probably forged and that signatures on dozens of absentee ballot requests were probably bogus as well.

Twelve people called to the witness stand during the case invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. One of them was Glenn Rice, a Hialeah police officer who signed as a witness to 20 absentee ballots -- including 13 alleged forgeries.

In court, both sides conceded there was fraud. They disagreed on how much and who was responsible.

"It was an uphill battle all the way," said Thomas Spencer, the Miami lawyer who took the case without charge. "We had to ferret out the evidence, we had to deal with people who were clamming up, and we had to overcome a high standard of proof."

Spencer and his investigators used sophisticated techniques to weed out questionable ballots. Using a computer, they ran absentee voter lists against a database containing electric and water bills, property records and driver's licenses.

Shapiro said he chose to throw out the entire election, and not just the absentee ballots, because the fraud could not be directly pinned on either candidate or campaign.

Many Hialeah residents say they were baffled by this latest twist in the city's topsy-turvy electoral politics.

"We're without a mayor?" said Isabel Lopez, 80, at the Westland Mall in Hialeah. "That's weird. What's going to happen to Hialeah next?"

Herald staff writer Karen Branch contributed to this report.
 
 

On the day that Raul Martinez was re-elected mayor of Hialeah, opponent Nilo Juri said he suspected fraud. That case was finally proved Monday. Major developments:

1993

* Nov. 9: Two years after his conviction on federal corruption charges, Martinez, still free pending appeal, is re- elected mayor. He loses at the polls, but wins by 273 votes with a 2-1 margin among absentee ballots.

* Nov. 19: Opponent Nilo Juri files a lawsuit alleging fraud, and at about the same time, federal agents launch a new criminal investigation.

* Nov. 22: Metro-Dade administrators order a dramatic tightening of procedures for giving out absentee ballots.

* Dec. 4: The Herald reports that Our Dream retirement home, housing people suffering from schizophrenia and other mental illnesses, was aggressively targeted for absentee votes by Martinez campaign workers.

1994

* Jan. 5: The Herald reports that a Hialeah voter claims someone forged her signature on an absentee ballot. She had passport stamps to prove she was out of the country at the time.

* Jan. 24: Lula Rodriguez, an aide to U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno and sister-in-law of Raul Martinez , resigns her post in Washington after disclosures that she helped the Martinez campaign by signing as a witness on 13 questionable absentee ballots.

* July 6: The Herald reports that two North Dade residents who have never lived in Hialeah say their names somehow wound up on the voter rolls there, and fraudulent ballots were cast for them in the mayoral runoff. The address listed for both voters is a Hialeah home owned by councilwoman Marie Rovira, who was elected in November on a slate with Martinez.

* July 18: A trial in Juri's fraud case opens before Judge Sidney Shapiro. A Juri expert testified that 198 absentee ballots and dozens of request forms were probably forged. Juri's attorneys eventually present evidence that 50 people who voted in Hialeah actually live outside the city.

* Nov. 7: Judge Shapiro throws out the election.

Federal agents have set up a hotline to take reports of voting fraud in today's election. People who see suspicious activity can call 787-6721 while the polls are open today, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.