{"id":112679,"date":"2026-01-10T03:40:30","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T03:40:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/112679\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T03:40:30","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T03:40:30","slug":"ex-hialeah-police-chief-bonds-out-tells-judge-not-guilty-in-public-corruption-caper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/112679\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Hialeah police chief bonds out, tells judge not guilty in public corruption caper"},"content":{"rendered":"

A tentative date was set for the public corruption trial of a former Hialeah police chief accused of abusing his position to steal hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars and confiscated drug money.<\/p>\n

Sergio Velazquez, whose nine-year term atop the city\u2019s police department was marred by a highly publicized sex scandal, was taken into custody by law enforcement just after driving away from his home Monday. He was charged with money laundering, grand theft and organized fraud.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Ex-Hialeah police chief busted for stealing almost $600k from city coffers, state says<\/a><\/p>\n

The scheme, investigators said, involved the former chief depositing dozens of checks for just under $10,000 that were ordered from the city\u2019s finance department, into personal accounts controlled by him. They say he used the money to pay off credit card debt and purchase high-end Rolex watches and goods from Gucci and Versace.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The charges against former Hialeah Police Chief Sergio Velazquez are shown during a press conference at the Miami-Dade State Attorney\u2019s Office, Monday, June 2, 2025.<\/p>\n

Velazquez, 61, wearing a red jail outfit and handcuffed, briefly appeared on Zoom before Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Mindy Glazer Tuesday morning and was released on a $30,000 bond that was posted by his wife. In an unusual move, he was quickly arraigned and pleaded not guilty to the charges.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe enter a plea of not guilty on all three counts,\u201d Velazquez\u2019s attorney Richard Diaz said during the hearing.<\/p>\n

Tentative trial date<\/p>\n

The plea was formalized before Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Zachary James on Wednesday morning and the judge set a tentative trial date of Sept. 8. State prosecutors usually take close to the three-week window permitted before filing formal charges and hearing a defendant\u2019s plea.<\/p>\n

Investigators say the thefts charged against Velazquez took place between May and November 2021 and totaled about $600,00. In total, close to $3.2 million in city money dating back to 2015 hasn\u2019t been accounted for and that additional charges could follow, the investigators said.<\/p>\n

The missing money controlled by Velazquez was supposed to go toward undercover narcotics operations. Investigators say it\u2019s a combination of money budgeted to the police department for special operations \u2014 which comes from the city\u2019s general fund \u2014 and money awarded to the city through a court order that was confiscated mostly during drug stings.<\/p>\n

Probe began shortly after 2021 dismissal<\/p>\n

Velazquez, who became chief in 2012, was relieved of duty by the city\u2019s new Mayor Esteban Bovo shortly after his November 2021 election victory. He was replaced by deputy chief George Fuente, whom investigators credited with helping FDLE and state prosecutors put the case together.<\/p>\n

Velazquez\u2019s term as chief of Miami-Dade\u2019s second-largest city was marred by charges levied against Sgt. Jesus Menocal Jr., who eventually pleaded guilty and served a three-year sentence for using his badge to force women into having sex with him.<\/p>\n

Velazquez was heavily criticized for being too lenient with Menocal Jr. in that case and in one years earlier in which four women \u2014 one underage \u2014 accused Menocal Jr. of sexual assault.<\/p>\n

Velazquez rose through the ranks despite a slew of allegations against him that were never substantiated. FDLE once spent 18 months looking into what they called \u201ca pattern of criminal misconduct.\u201d One of the cases involved the torching of a truck owned by a man who\u2019s ex-girlfriend had been dating Velazquez.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A tentative date was set for the public corruption trial of a former Hialeah police chief accused of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68422,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[225,227,226,1638,1599,57342,57343],"class_list":{"0":"post-112679","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hialeah","8":"tag-hialeah","9":"tag-hialeah-headlines","10":"tag-hialeah-news","11":"tag-hialeah-police","12":"tag-police-department","13":"tag-sergio-velazquez","14":"tag-velazquez"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}