NORTH MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – Former North Miami Beach Commissioner Frantz Pierre has been sentenced to two years of community control with a GPS monitor followed by four years of reporting probation for taking bribes from a strip club owner, prosecutors announced on Wednesday.
According to the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office, Pierre pleaded guilty to taking $12,500 in bribes from the business owner for his city commission vote to allow extended after-hours liquor sales at the strip club.
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Pierre was arrested in July 2018.
According to his arrest warrant, investigators found that Dean Tyler, the owner of Dean’s Gold strip club, paid Pierre the $12,500 in bribes from December 2013 to September 2014 to vote in his favor.
Pierre also pleaded guilty to stealing $2,000 from the city through a fraudulent grant application, prosecutors said.
“Every citizen rightfully expects their elected officials to work in the best interests of the community,” State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said in a statement. “Former Commissioner Frantz Pierre’s crime was that he chose to make his elected office profitable for himself. Neither I nor the skilled investigators of my Public Corruption Task Force will ever allow that to happen.”
Prosecutors said Pierre pleaded guilty to all charges.
Below is a list of all the charges that were filed against Pierre:
· 1 count of bribery
· 1 count of unlawful compensation/reward for official behavior
· 1 count of organized scheme to defraud
· 1 count of grand theft
· 7 counts of money laundering/unlawful proceeds greater than $300 but less than $20,000.
Pierre has been ordered to repay the stolen $2,000 to the city and has since resigned from his commission seat.