State: Case against senator nears end

TALLAHASSEE -- State Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla arrived four hours late Wednesday for a hearing on charges that he failed to report campaign cash on time.

The Miami Republican, accused of more than 300 elections violations, faces about $850,000 in fines.

Nonetheless, he showed up at 1:15 p.m. for an administrative hearing that was scheduled to begin at 9 a.m.

Diaz de la Portilla's response, the only comment he has offered in his case, was that he had trouble getting a flight from Miami the day after a special election there.

"It's hard to get up here -- you have to go through Orlando," said Diaz de la Portilla, 36.

Today is expected to be the final day of the case against Diaz de la Portilla, whom the state accuses of accepting illegal donations and failing to report others in the waning days of the 1999 special election to replace former Sen. Alberto Gutman.

Diaz de la Portilla succeeded Gutman, who was sentenced in April 2000 to five years in prison for Medicare fraud.

According to the state, Diaz de la Portilla accepted a $10,000 cash donation -- 100 times over the limit for cash donations -- and failed to note it on his original finance report.

In total, Diaz de la Portilla failed to report $144,475.96 in his original forms to the state, according to elections officials. And he failed to report more than $68,000 in expenditures on the original reports.

The senator's attorney told Administrative Law Judge J.B. Clark that the demands of running a campaign during a special election prevented Diaz de la Portilla from personally overseeing the financial aspects of the campaign.

"He did the best job he could under the circumstances," said attorney Ben Kuehne. Those circumstances meant less time to handle all the reporting requirements of a campaign, Kuehne said. Diaz de la Portilla left those matters in the hands of his campaign staff, the attorney said.

And once he found out about the reporting errors, Kuehne said, he ordered them corrected.

But David Chester, who represented the state, reminded Clark that Diaz de la Portilla is an experienced candidate who should know elections law. He was elected to the state House of Representatives in 1994 and stayed there until the 1999 election.

While a representative, Diaz de la Portilla spent four years on different elections committees, Chester told Clark.

"He chose to create his own exemptions and thus gave himself an unfair advantage" in the special election, Chester said.

Clark's recommendation in the case, once he makes it, will head back to the Florida Elections Commission for a final ruling, Chester said after the hearing.

This is not the first time the Florida Elections Commission has taken note of Diaz de la Portilla. In 1995, a Leon County judge threatened to jail the then-representative, who had been found in contempt of court for failure to pay a fine -- at $3,872 still far less than he faces now -- or file campaign expense reports for a 1992 election.

Diaz de la Portilla filed his reports about a year late and refused to pay the fines. He told the Division of Elections that his computer system was damaged by a power surge during Hurricane Andrew, leaving him without many of his records.

As part of that case, Diaz de la Portilla provided written answers to questions about his assets. When asked to state his annual income, Diaz de la Portilla said, "See public records." When asked if he had a watch on his person, he said, "Not to my knowledge." Asked if he had any money, he responded, "Sometimes."

His biography in the legislative clerk's manual lists him as political consultant. Other family members have been involved in politics, including brothers Renier Diaz de la Portilla, a Republican state House member, and Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, a former county commissioner.

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Lucy Morgan

From the Times state desk