WEST MIAMI-DADE, FLA. (WSVN) - Former Miami-Dade School Board member Lubby Navarro was arrested on public corruption charges after, authorities said, she swindled the school district out of more than $100,000.
A state attorney and inspector general’s joint investigation led up to Navarro’s Thursday morning arrest.
According to the state attorney, Navarro used more than $100,000 of district money for her own personal use.
“It went for air travel, it went for hotels, meals, car rentals and entertainment for herself, her friends and her family members,” said Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle
Photos released by the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office shows Navarro in the act, buying at stores like Walmart, BrandsMart and Home Depot.
Fernandez Rundle said each of the nine school board members gets issued a “P-Card” as well as a travel card, intended to be used to buy school board-related items.
“These P-cards are given to school board members to buy small items,” said Fernandez Rundle.
But as investigators combed through Navarro’s spending, for the year 2022, that was allegedly made using the county’s provided credit card, they found her “small item” limit amounted to $92,047.92.
“That’s a first-degree felony,” said Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Mindy S. Glazer during the suspect’s bond hearing, Thursday afternoon.
Prosecutors said she managed to spend that much money by increasing her monthly $6,000 allowance almost every month in 2022. Some of the highest increases more than doubled her allowance.
Arrest records show Navarro used $42,000 of her P-card balance to purchase gift cards.
“Purchases I told you in her home. You’ll see there, that’s a commercial-grade refrigerator, that’s a sofa, and then on the far right is a convection oven. Then you go to the Shook Market, her then-boyfriend’s market, but she began to buy items for his market, such as a commercial refrigerator,” Fernandez Rundle said.
The state attorney also said that Navarro also spent over $9,000 on the travel card that was issued to her by the school board.
“It went for hotels, meals, car rentals and entertainment, for herself, her friends and their family members,” said Fernandez Rundle.
Officials said she took her boyfriend to Las Vegas and paid for the stay at the Wynn hotel with district money, which cost over $4,200.
Authorities said she also treated her mother to a trip to the Dominican Republic and took her boyfriend’s family on a fully paid trip to Disney.
“Every dollar stolen and spent by Ms.Navarro is a dollar taken from our school system, and therefore stolen from our children, and diminishing their possibility of a better future,” said Fernandez Rundle.
Felix Jimenez, the inspector general, said Navarro would alter receipts.
“What they noticed was some doctoring of documents; those are clear red flags,” said Jimenez.
The state’s attorney office also said Navarro bought her boyfriend’s Fort Lauderdale juice shop called “Shook Market”.
According to the arrest report, she bought “Ninja blenders, Breville Espresso machines, chest freezer, two wine coolers, fake grass, a Frigidaire refrigerator for drinks, and a $900.00 Android cell phone for M.D,” her boyfriend.
But once Navarro and M.D. broke up, Navarro did not take no for an answer. She went as far as using the school board member issued P-card to purchase “two artificial silicone pregnancy bellies with cotton filling, one reflecting a 2-4 month pregnancy and the other 3-10 month pregnancy,” according to prosecutors, in an attempt to keep her boyfriend. It didn’t work.
“She knew better than to have gone down this very pathetic path,” said Fernandez Rundle.
The former board member has been the vice president of government affairs for Memorial Healthcare System since 2019. She resigned from her school board post in November of 2022.
Navarro appeared in front of a judge on Thursday. She faces several felonies, including one count of organized fraud of $50,000 or more and one count of organized fraud below $20,000.
A spokesperson for Miami-Dade Public Schools issued a statement that reads as follows:
Miami-Dade County Public Schools has been made aware of the recent arrest of former School Board Member Lubby Navarro. As this remains an active, open matter, we will not be commenting on this situation. We will fully cooperate with law enforcement agencies as necessary.
Miami-Dade Public Schools
A spokesperson for Memorial Healthcare System also issued a statement after 7News reached out to inquire whether Navarro’s arrest would impact her employment with them. The statement reads:
“We are aware of the developing situation involving our employee and expect to learn more from the State Attorney’s office. Our commitment to maintaining the highest standard of integrity remains unwavering as we determine the facts of the matter. All future actions will be taken in the best interest of the communities we serve.”
Memorial Healthcare System
In a statement, Navarro’s lawyer wrote, “The result is that Ms. Navarro, innocent of these charges, will be required to spend the night in jail before she can appear before the assigned Circuit Judge to make her case for bond release … Ms. Navarro fully intends to prevail in this case. This effort to ruin her well-deserved reputation as an honest, properly motivated community servant will be shown to be unjust. Ms. Navarro looks forward to her complete vindication and her resumption of working for the betterment of the community. Ms. Navarro states without equivocation that she is innocent of wrongdoing and appreciates the many expressions of support and well wishes by those who know her best.”
The United Teachers of Dade also released a statement. It reads as follows:
“The arrest and allegations surrounding Lubby Navarro are disturbing. Fraud at the expense of our children and their education is appalling. This extends to the fraud and waste rarely investigated in the for-profit charter and voucher schemes. The current charges add an interesting context to Ms. Navarro’s rants in the past on book banning and morality in general.”
Navarro remains behind bars, with her bond set at $2 million.
She is expected to return to court for a hearing on her bond on Friday to prove that the money she posts is actually hers.
Following Navarro’s arrest, the inspector general announced they will be reviewing the district-provided credit card spending of current and immediate past school board members.
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