Miami mayoral candidate Frank Pichel wanted in Keys on felony charge of impersonating a cop
Monroe County authorities have obtained an arrest warrant for Frank Pichel, a controversial former cop who is running for Miami mayor, accusing him of impersonating a police officer.
Court records reviewed by the Herald show that a Monroe County judge has signed a warrant for Pichel, who as of Thursday had not been arrested on the felony charge. Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay told the Herald Thursday that his deputies notified Pichel’s attorney this week about the warrant and asked him to surrender.
“This has not happened,” Ramsay said.
Pichel’s name has been entered into state and national law enforcement databases showing the arrest warrant, Ramsay said.
“If anyone should run his name, boom, it will show up that we have a warrant out for him and he will be arrested,” the sheriff said.
Pichel’s attorney, Matthew Baldwin, did not give a timeline of when, but said his client will surrender.
“Of course. He’s not that kind of a person,” Baldwin said. He declined to comment on the specifics of the case.
The existence of the arrest warrant confirms an allegation floated by Miami Police Chief Art Acevedo, who claimed in a memo last week that Pichel was going to be arrested. Acevedo, in his memo, claimed that he understood Pichel was “working as a private investigator gathering ‘dirt’” on behalf of Miami City Commissioner Joe Carrollo “and other elected officials.”
Pichel, a licensed private investigator, is challenging Miami Mayor Francis Suarez in the November election. Suarez did not immediately return a request for comment.
According to a law enforcement source, Pichel is accused of flashing a badge and claiming to be a Monroe County Sheriff’s deputy while parked in a Key Largo neighborhood on May 30. He appeared on the block at the same time a “Miami city official” was visiting a neighbor on the street, according to the source.
An off-duty Miami-Dade police officer who happened to be visiting a friend on that block saw Pichel parked in the white BMW, according to the source. When they questioned him, Pichel showed a gold badge, claimed to be with Monroe County, and said he was “waiting for relief,” according to the source. The men left and Pichel drove away.
But the Miami-Dade officer wrote down the tag number of the BMW, which was registered to Pichel. The interaction was also captured on surveillance footage, the source said. The suspicious neighbors later notified the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office and an investigation was launched.
Miami’s internal affairs unit is also investigating. While it was not immediately clear who the Miami city official was, the IA investigation appears to stem from a series of photos purporting to show Mayor Suarez and his security detail at a rented house in Key Largo over that Memorial Day weekend — images that were emailed to Acevedo and state law enforcement officials on June 1.
It wasn’t immediately clear if Pichel was the person who took the photos and was tailing Suarez.
The emails, sent by someone going by “William Moss,” alleged Suarez was abusing his authority by having police officers provide him security in the Keys. The emailer even gives the address as a house on the same block in Key Largo where Pichel was seen by neighbors in his white BMW.
Pichel was included in the email string — and even responded, writing “now we know where he stands its not for the taxpayers.”
Acevedo, in his 8-page memo, suggested that the mayor’s security detail may have been responsible for leaking the mayor’s whereabouts. He wrote that the IA probe was started because of a “breach of operational security involving the sergeant-at-arms detail, which is the detail tasked with providing executive protection to the mayor and city commissioners.”
The department relieved sergeant-at-arms Luis Camacho of duty, something city commissioners have criticized. In his memo, Acevedo accuses city commissioners of meddling in the IA investigation.
Commissioners, in turn, held a bizarre special meeting last week to rip Acevedo over a series of gaffes and his saying the police department was run by the “Cuban Mafia.”
Acevedo was hired at the behest of Suarez, who has remained largely silent as three of Miami’s Cuban-American commissioners have lambasted the chief over his performance.
Pichel is a well-known figure in Miami political circles. In 2000, he was suspended from the Miami police department when he was accused of instructing a public service aide to file a false police report to cover up a police beating that led to a prisoner’s death. Prosecutors never charged Pichel, who was a sergeant at the time.
In 2008, when he was sergeant-at-arms at City Hall, he was accused of selling small amounts of steroids and Cialis, the erectile dysfunction drug. Prosecutors later dropped felony charges as part of a plea deal in which Pichel agreed to give up his police certification.
Pichel ran for a commission seat in 2019, losing to Alex Diaz de la Portilla. He is running again in the November election, challenging Suarez for mayor.
This story was originally published September 30, 2021 at 1:33 PM with the headline "Miami mayoral candidate Frank Pichel wanted in Keys on felony charge of impersonating a cop."
