{"id":382050,"date":"2026-08-26T23:20:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T23:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/382050\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T23:20:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T23:20:08","slug":"fight-continues-in-coral-gables-over-garden-of-our-lord-development-proposal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/382050\/","title":{"rendered":"Fight continues in Coral Gables over Garden of our Lord development proposal"},"content":{"rendered":"

CORAL GABLES, Fla. \u2014 Attorney David Winker is representing Bonnie Bolton in her fight to preserve the Garden of our Lord in Coral Gables<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t have people coming in and just manufacturing support for these projects,\u201d Winker said. <\/p>\n

Winker is accusing some people who claimed to be residents of lying to the commission in support of the development project. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was floored,\u201d said Commissioner Melissa Castro. \u201cI couldn\u2019t even believe that was happening, especially in my city. I was in disbelief. Not only that, I really want to find out who is behind this, and paid for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coral Gables resident Omar Packard noticed that some of the people who were speaking in support of the development were seemingly struggling to pronounce the addresses that they were claiming to live at. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe started noticing these people, that they seemed to need to look at their cell phone to recite their addresses,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I found a lot of them didn\u2019t even exist or were commercial buildings.\u201d<\/p>\n

It turned into a fact finding quest by Packard to find out if they actually life where they claimed to. <\/p>\n

\u201cEvery single address that we checked was fraudulent,\u201d said Winker. <\/p>\n

Added Bolton: \u201cThis is a conspiracy to defraud not just me and the Garden of our Lord, but all of the residents of Coral Gables.\u201d<\/p>\n

Packard presented his findings to Bolton, who then shared them with Winker. <\/p>\n

He outlined the findings for the commission, asking for a deferral. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe law is clear, you can\u2019t take an oath and say something that\u2019s false,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s a crime.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead, the commission opted to move forward with the development project, approving it with a 3-1 vote. <\/p>\n

\u201cI voted no. I don\u2019t believe that vote should have taken place that day,\u201d said Castro. \u201cI believe that really messed with the integrity of the record. Because if there was false testimony, what else was false? Now it\u2019s questionable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The commission also unanimously passed a motion moved by Mayor Vince Lago and seconded Castro.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey showed up here and lied to the commission, saying they are residents of the city,\u201d he said. \u201cI want to make sure that goes to the necessary authorities, whether that is (Miami-Dade County State Attorney Katherine) Fernandez Rundle, whether it is the ethics commission, locally or the state.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the city said the Coral Gables Police Department will investigate some of the claims that were raised. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd hopefully we\u2019ll see what happens and we\u2019ll see what the state attorney has to say about this, what FDLE has to say about this,\u201d said Winker. \u201cBecause I think that it\u2019s so fundamental to our democracy, right? We can\u2019t have people just coming in and lying in official proceedings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Local 10 News received a statement from the developer, which read:<\/p>\n

We were surprised and deeply disappointed by the actions alleged by Mr. Winker. They do not reflect who we are or how we operate. <\/p>\n

For 40 years, Fifield has built its reputation on trust and true partnership with the communities we serve. This project is no exception. <\/p>\n

At the heart of it is a promise to Crystal Academy and its students: a permanent, rent-free home for the next 99 years. We remain fully committed to fulfilling it, and to full transparency with the City Commission and the Coral Gables community as this process moves forward.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Fifield spokesperson<\/p>\n

City of Coral Gables official statement: <\/p>\n

To clarify, the City Commission did not vote to open a criminal investigation by the Coral Gables Police Department. The Commission requested that the Police Department investigate the claims of one of the parties and refer any appropriate allegations regarding the speakers\u2019 addresses to the appropriate authorities for review. The Coral Gables Police Department will investigate some of the claims that were raised. <\/p>\n

Because the matter is being referred for review, the city cannot speculate as to whether a law may have been violated or characterize the allegations as fraud, perjury or another potential offense. Those are matters for the appropriate authorities to determine.<\/p>\n

The Commission separately approved the various related items by a 3-1 vote. Commissioner Ariel Fernandez did not attend the meeting.<\/p>\n

The Commission\u2019s land-use decision was based on the competent substantial evidence in the record; therefore, the referral of the separate allegations does not prevent the items from moving forward.<\/p>\n

\u2014 City of Coral Gables<\/p>\n

To see Winker\u2019s full presentation to the city commission, click here<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfe0 News From Your Neighborhood<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WPLG Local10.com – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CORAL GABLES, Fla. \u2014 Attorney David Winker is representing Bonnie Bolton in her fight to preserve the Garden…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382051,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[225,227,226],"class_list":["post-382050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hialeah","tag-hialeah","tag-hialeah-headlines","tag-hialeah-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382050","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=382050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382050\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=382050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=382050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=382050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}