It has been 30 days since I first published documents that pointed to Raquel Regalado having committed Homestead Exemption Fraud, and 12 days since I published a copy of the letter from the Property Appraiser's Office informing Regalado that they determined that she had committed that fraud, demanding that she pay the $3981.78 in back taxes and penalties.

A lot has happened since then, starting with the claim by Regalado hours after my story broke that she planned on showing up at the Property Appraiser's office on Monday morning - that would have been August 8th - with all of the documents that would have refuted the decision reached by the Property Appraiser's investigators that she had committed Homestead Exemption Fraud.

Instead of going to the Property Appraiser's Office on Monday, Regalado spent all on that day, and the days following going on every Latin radio and TV show, and sitting down for interviews with Latin newspapers to deny the accusations, while at the same time fabricating a defense that centered on accusing me of being the person responsible for "making this story happen."

Here's how Elaine de Valle, her communications and media consultant tried to spin the story on her blog.

Of course this was all a fanciful fairy tale, but after Regalado and her followers rode that horse as far as they could, her story changed when Regalado started claiming that she was in the process of collecting all of the documents she needed in order to go to the Property Appraiser's Office.

At last Sunday's televised debate on Channel 10, Regalado trotted out a new explanation that involved her ex-husband.  You can see the entire debate HERE, and below is the portion where she claims that her ex-husband is supposedly working with her to clean this problem up, even though he had no role in anything having to do with her failure to properly maintain her Homestead Exemption paperwork, or pay her taxes.

As of today, Regalado HAS NOT, as she repeatedly said she would a week and a half ago gone to the Property Appraiser's Office to clear this matter up.

Apparently her strategy, as its now revealed itself was to push this issue beyond the date of the primary election, while proclaiming her innocence, lying to the news media about how she was going to handle this issue, accusing me and folks in the Property Appraiser's Office of conspiring to work together to fabricate this problem, and lastly pretending to demonstrate that she was decisive in dealing with the problem by repeatedly proclaiming that because she was innocent she had no fear in  showing up at the Appraiser's office to put an end to this bogus allegation.

In other words, Raquel Regalado did what Carlos Gimenez claims she does all the time, she was making things up as she went along.

Why did she do this instead of actually going to the Property Appraiser's Office? Simple she doesn't have any documents that will cause the Property Appraiser to reverse the decision made by his staff.

Raquel Regalado committed Homestead Exemption Fraud, and like any lying politician caught in a bad situation she decided that the best way to deal with the problem was to try and ly about it in the hopes that by lying she would minimize the number of votes this issue could cost her.

FRANK HERRERA - RAQUELITA'S EX-HUSBAND AND HIS LAWYER ASSOCIATE WHO BOUGHT HIS EX-WIFE'S HOUSE

Before her decision dusring last Sunday's TV debate to involve her ex-husband as part of her latest defense against the Homestead Exemption Fraud charge, she repeatedly talked about how they had had a contentious divorce, and how the divorce and their squabbles with the bank over the foreclosure of the house that she owned was somehow at fault for her mishandling the paperwork that led to the Property Appraiser's Office coming to the conclusion that she had committed fraud.

For me, once a new name gets associated with someone I've accused to doing something wrong, I start looking at that person, and digging into whatever documents and other information I can find to figure out what their real role in the activities might be.

Regalado's involving her ex-husband in her latest effort to deflect her failure to show up at the Property Appraiser's Office set off a warning bell because there was no reason, other than a blatant politicial ploy to try and make herself look like a wrongfully accused woman who's ex-husband, in spite of all  accusations of his adultery and past name calling was now willing to stand by her side, because nothing he could say or do would change the documented facts that Regalado owned the house, and continued to claim a Homestead Exemption after she moved out.

So as I usually do when I come across something that made no sense, I started looking.  Among the first set of documents I looked at was the Certificate Of Sale of Regalado's house at 1745 SW 15th Street.  

That document showed that Raquelita's ex-husband, Frank Herrera, was sent a copy of this certificate in care of someone named Gustavo Sardina.

The name Gustavo Sardina ran a bell, so I did a little more digging, and I discovered that Gustavo Sardina and Frank Herrera were attorneys who had a long history of working together, either as lawyers with Quintairos, Prieto, Woods & Boyer PA, or when Sardina had his own firm, which is address where the certificate was sent.

The real reason that the name ran a bell however, was that Gustavo Sardina was the person who has purchased Regalado's house from the bank on the Courthouse steps that led to the Certificate Of Sale that was sent to Frank Herrera in care of his office.

A trip to the County's Foreclosure Office revealed that not only had Gustavo Sardina purchased the house, but he had been the only person to show up and bid on it when it was sold on the Courthouse steps.

Best of all, 7 months after Sardina paid $197,400.00 for the house - a house whose outstanding mortgage at the time of the sale was $274,197.62 -  he flipped it for $437,500.00, making a profit of $240,100.00.  

So, in one of those coindences that make Miami such a special place, it turned out that Frank Herrera's (partner/employer?) showed up on the Courthouse steps and ponied up $197,400.00, plus fees, to buy Frank's  ex-wife's house, and then flipped it 7 months later, making close to a quarter million in profit.

Who says Miami isn't a place of boundless opportunities when you have an inside track?

It's Miami, Bitches!