MIAMI, Fla. (FNN NEWS) – Hospitals, healthcare professionals, state and local governments in Florida are scrambling to locate and purchase thousands or even millions of N95 respirator masks needed to protect healthcare workers and first responders from the deadly COVID-19 pandemic.
N95 Respirator Masks a Global Hot Commodity
The Miami Herald reported that the Florida Division of Emergency Management spent $225 million to purchase 30 million masks at $7.50 apiece — agreed to on March 30. It was brokered through Miami lobbyist Manny Reyes, son of Miami commissioner, Manolo Reyes. In normal times, the masks might cost anywhere from 58 cents to $1.25 per unit.
The Case of 15,000 Missing N95 Masks
Miami shipping company Freight Hub Group came under investigation last week for allegedly skimming thousands of N95 respirator masks earmarked to be donated to hospitals and first responders. The company was responsible for nineteen pallets–122,880 masks total–on March 28, 2020, but 15,120 masks appears to have vanshied into thin air after only two weeks of distribution.
In this photo provided by Patrick Jeary, pallets of the donors’ Gerson N95 masks are stacked on top of each other awaiting distribution at Freight Hub Group’s warehouse.
N95 respirator masks, which are designed to filter 95% of airborne particles, are considered critical personal protective equipment (PPE) for medical professionals treating patients with COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus.
Florida is among the U.S. states hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic.
Philanthropist couple Jie Cao & Yuhong Feng foresaw the need for N95 masks and ordered themtwo months before the COVID-19 outbreak began ravaging the U.S. They contacted Patrick Jeary, a real estate broker and leader in Miami’s international business community, to help them distribute the masks. The rollout, however, was a different story.
An Irresistible Opportunity
“On Monday, March 30, 2020 at 8am, Luis Lopez called me and introduced himself as the owner of the Gofreighthub group,” Jeary shared in an email to Medley Police Department, a small town police agency located in northwest Miami-Dade County, last week. “He [Lopez] had heard from his sales manager Emilio Magdalena that we had planned to donate all of these 122,880 masks and wanted to help us. He offered to deliver the masks anywhere in the US free of charge, noting that in South Florida it would be his carriers, but over the US they would use [a] third party.”
The donors’ masks have been distributed to medical facilities, law enforcement, and government entities across the country:
– City of Miami Beach: 1,680 masks
– City of Miami Police: 1,680 masks
– Comprehensive Health Care Center (North Miami): 1,680 masks
– Sutter Hospital (California): 480 masks
– Memorial Health Care Broward: 6,480 masks
– Seattle Health System: 12,960 masks
– Mount Sinai: 12,960 masks
– Baptist Hospital: 19,440 masks
– Jackson Memorial Miami: 12,960 masks
– Holy Name Medical Center, New York: 6,480 masks
– New York State: 25,920 masks
Then Masks Went Missing
Jeary received more requests to donate the critically needed N95 masks:
– Florida National News coordinated with Jeary to secure thousands of masks for Orange County Government first responders
Jeary emailed both parties, alloting 9 cartons, or over 2,000 masks, for each.
However, when Jeary received the requests from Miami Dade Ambulance Service and Orange County Government, he contacted Freight Hub on April 14, 2020 to confirm the remaining inventory before making the next shipment. However, Magdalena replied stating that there were only eighteen cartons (only 4,320 masks) remaining. After a lengthy email exchange, the company informed him that they were not prepared to investigate the loss and stood by their inventory totals. They suggested that Jeary make a claim for the missing masks, which was a thirty-sixty day process, but refused to release the remaining eighteen cartons unless Jeary released them from all claims.
Jeary took sharp action, contacting Medley Police Department to investigate.
“We are missing sixty-three cartons or 2.4 pallets at a cost value of around $27,000, and as confirmed by Baptist [Hospital], with a value today in the middle of the crisis of a minimum of $75,600,” wrote Jeary in his email to Medley PD last week.
The masks were initially packed in three tiers of nine cartons–twenty-seven cartons total–per pallet with a weight of 233 pounds. But when Jeary asked hospitals to send back delivery photos, he noticed four to five cartons missing from the top stack on nearly every pallet. Even in Freight Hub Group’s April 2, 2020 email newsletter, photos on the bottom show multiple pallets opened simultaneously with cartons missing from the top stack of each one.
Freight Hub Group’s email newsletter shows the pallets of N95 masks with missing boxes on the top stack. Image: Freight Hub Group.
What’s more, the company listed the donations, but made no mention of the donors, appearing to take credit for the charitable distribution, and stated “N95 masks by Gerson delivered this week. Over a half a million masks we donated this week!” The donors purchased 122,880 Gerson masks, which is significantly less than the half-million figure mentioned in the email newsletter.
In an email response last Friday, Freight Hub Group’s Magdalena informed Jeary they were receiving calls from people claiming to be him, making threats, and accused Jeary of making “unscrupulous demands” to track each pallet, which he said couldn’t be done due to low manpower, despite the company’s technology and cargo tracking system (Truck Hub) being its main selling point. He also highlighted the fact that the company did the distribution for free and placed Jeary’s order above paying customers when he didn’t “pay a cent.”
“This is an outrage,” Jeary told Florida National News in a written statement last Saturday. “The goal is getting the masks to the people that need it most! The donors don’t want to pursue a claim, they just want the masks to go where they are needed. The mudslinging is unnecessary. At this point, they just want the remaining masks released so that those who really need them get them.”
Police Investigate
Lieutenant German Gutierrez of Medley PD provided Florida National News with the police report via public records request. According the police report, Jeary filed the request for investigation April 16, 2020 at 8:40am for the missing 63 cartons of N95 masks, valued at $27,000.
Patrick Jeary’s police report against Freight Hub Group for the missing 63 cartons of N95 masks. Courtesy of Medley Police Department.
Medley PD reports that a detective went with Jeary to the Freight Hub warehouse, and after speaking with Freight Hub Group owner Luis Lopez, Lopez said he was withholding the 18-and-a-half cartons because an argument had ensued in which Jeary threatened to sue the company. The Medley PD detective impounded the remaining 18-and-a-half cartons that Freight Hub Group was withholding and later turned them over to Dr. Rudy Moise on Jeary and the donors’ behalf. Lieutenant Gutierrez provided Florida National News with the product receipt.
Furthermore, Lieutenant Gutierrez told Florida National News in an email Thursday that Freight Hub Group had actually donated three boxes of the very masks in question to Medley Police Department’s first responders, which Jeary and the donors had no knowledge of.
Not the First Time: Better Business Bureau Reviews
Despite Freight Hub Group’s A- rating according to the Better Business Bureau serving Miami Dade County, Jeary isn’t the first person to experience the company’s willingness to withhold cargo.
On Freight Hub Group’s BBB profile (listed as Freight Hub Corp. and DGD Transport, Inc.), three previous customers made similar cargo-holding complaints in less than a year, saying that working with Freight Hub Group was the worst experience they’d had in their decades of shipping experience.
As recently as April 9, 2020, Scott G. reported in his review that after the initial conversation with the company to transload his cargo container from Port Miami to Fort Lauderdale, the company requested “the particulars” in order to complete a rate quote.
According to Scott, he never completed the rate quote nor authorized the company to do the work, yet his cargo was picked up and the company brought the container to their warehouse, but claimed that the cargo couldn’t be removed from the truck because they didn’t have the right gear, which caused it to remain with them, racking up drayage, trucking, and other fees.
Scott added that in a later email from Freight Hub Group, he was informed that the company sent his account to a bank for collections due to the unpaid fees.
When Scott emailed them again about releasing his cargo, Scott claimed Magdalena emailed him back saying he was “‘going to put a lien on our cargo until I came to my senses’,” Scott wrote. “He said that we were ‘out of line’ when we demanded accountability.”
On November 19, 2019, Lily Y. reported in a review, “They are adding extra fees without any explanations. Once we questioned unreasonable charges, they have illegally held our container at their possession, blackmailing us, that they will not deliver our container until we pay them unreasonable extra charges they have added to our invoices. Worst company ever! Stay away from them!”
On August 2, 2019, Sonja C. wrote in her review that her company “disclosed [the] full set of requirements, cargo details, and the whole project outlay. We have asked Freight Hub multiple times during the execution of the project if all charges are included, and they have confirmed they were.” However, she reports that once Frieght Hub Group delivered her company’s cargo to the port, they charged “approximately $4,000 more than what was quoted, and demanded immediate payment so that they can tender the cargo at the port. Basically, they took the cargo as a hostage until the full payment was made.” When her company demanded answers for the extra fees, she noted, “Their response for that was that they called off the driver that was already at the port tendering one of the containers.”
Medley PD’s Decision
Lieutenant Gutierrez informed Florida National News that Jeary, the donors, and Freight Hub Group ultimately reached an agreement concerning the missing masks and the police department closed their investigation.
Jeary and Freight Hub Group were unavailable for comment.
A Problem on a National Scale
This police investigation is just one of many across the country, given the current demand for the N95 masks. Between March and April, there have been several reports of masks being stolen or fraudulent international scams to bilk money.
In the first week of March, Vladislav Drozdek, 22, stole twenty-25 cases of N95 masks, resulting in a roughly $2,500 loss for the non-profit organization they were intended for, and started selling them on Craigslist the following day.
April 11 – In California, officials discovered a fraudulent scam offering 39 million N95 masks. The SEIU tried connecting healthcare facilities and hopsitals with a supplier claiming to have the 39 million masks for distribution, but the medical entities discovered that the offer was in fact fake.
Please report COVID-19 fraud, hoarding, or price-gouging to local law enforcement, the Florida Attorney General’s Office, or the National Center for Disaster Fraud’s National Hotline at (866) 720-5721 or email disaster@leo.gov.
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This a developing story. Willie David and Mellissa Thomas contributed to this report. | news@floridanationalnews.com
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A former Louisville police detective who helped falsify the warrant that led to the deadly police raid at Breonna Taylor’s apartment has pleaded guilty to a federal conspiracy charge.
Federal investigators said Kelly Goodlett added a false line to the warrant and later conspired with another detective to create a cover story when Taylor’s March 13, 2020, shooting death by police began gaining national attention.
Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman, was shot to death by officers who knocked down her door while executing a drug search warrant. Taylor’s boyfriend fired a shot that hit one of the officers as they came through the door and they returned fire, striking Taylor multiple times.
Goodlett, 35, appeared in a federal courtroom in Louisville on Tuesday afternoon and admitted to conspiring with another Louisville police officer to falsify the warrant. Goodlett briefly answered several questions from federal judge Rebecca Jennings Grady.
Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, was in the courtroom Tuesday but did not speak after the proceedings.
Three former Louisville officers were indicted on criminal civil rights charges earlier this month by a federal grand jury. Goodlett was not indicted, but charged in a federal information filing, which likely means the former detective is cooperating with investigators.
Goodlett will be sentenced Nov. 22. Grady said there may be “extenuating circumstances” that may move the court to push back the sentencing date. Part of the plea hearing was also kept under seal and was not discussed in open court Tuesday. She faces up to five years in prison for the conviction.
She resigned from the department Aug. 5, a day after U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced new federal charges in the Taylor case.
Former officers Joshua Jaynes and Kyle Meany were indicted on charges related to the warrant used to search Taylor’s home. A third former officer, Brett Hankison, was charged with using excessive force when he retreated from Taylor’s door, turned a corner and fired 10 shots into the side of her two-bedroom apartment. He was acquitted by a jury on similar state charges earlier this year. Jaynes, Meany and Hankison have all been fired.
The three former officers face a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted on the civil rights charges.
Federal prosecutors said in court records that Jaynes, who drew up the Taylor warrant, had claimed to Goodlett days before the warrant was served that he had “verified” from a postal inspector that a suspected drug dealer was receiving packages at Taylor’s apartment. But Goodlett knew this was false and told Jaynes the warrant did not yet have enough information connecting Taylor to criminal activity, prosecutors said. She added a paragraph saying the suspected drug dealer, Jamarcus Glover, was using Taylor’s apartment as his current address, according to the court records.
Two months later, when the Taylor shooting was attracting national headlines, the postal inspector told a media outlet he had not verified packages for Glover were going to Taylor’s apartment. Jaynes and Goodlett then met in Jaynes’ garage to “get on the same page” before Jaynes talked to investigators about the Taylor warrant, court records said.
They decided to say Sgt. John Mattingly, who is identified in the court records as J.M., told them Glover was receiving packages at Taylor’s home, according to prosecutors. Mattingly was shot in the leg during the raid at Taylor’s apartment.
Meany, who signed off on the Taylor warrant and was still a Louisville police sergeant when he was indicted on Aug. 4, was fired by Louisville Police Chief Erika Shields on Friday.
Shields said in a statement that Meany has not yet had his case heard by a jury, but “he is facing multiple federal charges after a lengthy investigation by the DOJ” and should not “expect continued employment under such conditions.”
Hankison was the only officer charged who was on the scene the night of the killing.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A prosecutor in a murder case complained about a judge’s ruling in a group text message that included the judge, resulting in a second mistrial for a man charged with killing his girlfriend’s young son. Now the defense wants the case dismissed altogether.
Broward County Judge Peter Holden refused to allow a 911 call as evidence against Corey Gorden, who is accused of killing the 3-year-old in 2015 and returning him in his car seat to his mother as if nothing had happened.
Assistant State Attorney Katya Palmiotto then sent a text complaining about the ruling to a group of current and former homicide prosecutors, the South Florida SunSentinel reported.
“Holden just sustained their objection and wouldn’t let us put the 911 call in as hearsay,” she wrote.
As a former homicide prosecutor who was appointed to the bench in 2018, the judge remained in the group chat. And lawyers are prohibited in criminal cases from talking with the judge if the defendant’s lawyers are not present.
Defense lawyer Michael Gottlieb filed for mistrial on Wednesday, saying in a summary that the 15-year veteran prosecutor had been overheard saying she messed up “real bad.”
“The judge was visibly upset and appeared angry,” Gottlieb wrote.
Holden grilled the prosecutor about the text message before declaring a mistrial.
In May, another judge declared a mistrial when prosecutors asked a witness about Gorden’s refusal to give a statement. Criminal trial jurors are not permitted to consider the defendants silence as proof of guilt.
Holden has not set a hearing on Gottlieb’s motion to dismiss the case.
UVALDE, Texas (AP) — Facing massive public pressure, Uvalde’s top school official has recommended the firing of the school district police chief who was central to the botched law enforcement response to the elementary school shooting nearly two months ago that killed two teachers and 19 students.
The South Texas city’s school board announced Wednesday that it will consider firing Chief Pete Arredondo at a special meeting Saturday. Arredondo has been accused by state officials of making several critical mistakes during the May 24 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School.
School officials have previously resisted calls to fire Arredondo. The announcement comes two days after a meeting where the school board members were lambasted for more than three hours by members of the public, who accused them of not implementing basic security at Robb, of not being transparent about what happened and of failing to hold Arredondo to account for his actions.
Confronted with parents’ vociferous demands to fire Arredondo and warnings that his job would be next, Superintendent Hal Harrell said Monday that the police chief was a contract employee who could not be fired at will. The agenda for Saturday’s meeting includes the board discussing the potential firing with its lawyer.
Arredondo, who has been on leave from the district since June 22, has faced blistering criticism since the massacre, most notably for not ordering officers to immediately breach the classroom where an 18-year-old gunman carried out the attack. If fired, Arredondo would become the first officer ousted from his job following the deadliest Texas school shooting in history.
Although nearly 400 officers from various agencies were involved in the police response that took more than an hour to confront and kill the shooter, Arredondo is one of only two known to have faced discipline. His attorney did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The move to potentially fire the chief follows the release of a damning 80-page report by a Texas House committee that blamed all levels of law enforcement for a slow and chaotic response. The report found that 376 law enforcement officers massed at the school, with more than half coming from state and federal agencies, but that they “failed to adhere to their active shooter training, and they failed to prioritize saving innocent lives over their own safety.”
According to the committee, Arredondo told lawmakers he didn’t consider himself the on-scene commander in charge and that his priority was to protect children in other classrooms. The committee report called that decision a “terrible, tragic mistake.”
Body camera footage released by the Uvalde officials shows Arredondo in the hallway trying multiple sets of keys on other classroom doors, but not the one where the massacre took place. The classroom door could not be locked from the inside, but there is no indication officers tried to open the door while the gunman was inside.
“Our thought was: ‘If he comes out, you know, you eliminate the threat,’ correct?” Arredondo told the committee, according to the report. “And just the thought of other children being in other classrooms, my thought was: ‘We can’t let him come back out. If he comes back out, we take him out, or we eliminate the threat.’”
Arredondo, 50, grew up in Uvalde and spent much of his nearly 30-year career in law enforcement in the city. He took the head police job at the school district in 2020 and was sworn in as a member of the City Council in a closed-door ceremony May 31. He resigned from his council seat July 2.
Politics21 hours ago
