Dear Friend,
As this joyous holiday season begins and we look forward to gathering with family and friends, we reflect on what we have; what we are grateful for; and the many blessings we have received this year. I personally feel an immense sense of gratitude and humility for the trust that you have bestowed upon me and my office. To have been retained as your State Attorney without opposition is a great honor and a tremendous responsibility. As always, you can count on me to uphold the law fairly and keep our community safe.
This past year alone (to date) we have filed to prosecute over 10,000 criminal felony cases of which 79% have resulted in a successful prosecution. Our Victims Services Unit has assisted 15,600 victims and next of kin. Of the 1,825 individuals we have assisted through our Second Chance: Sealing & Expungement events held monthly throughout Miami-Dade County, 1,405 were eligible to either seal or expunge a criminal case off their record, removing barriers to securing education, housing, employment, and a better future.
Being the fourth largest prosecutorial agency in the country always has its challenges. In the past few years, Miami’s extraordinarily high cost of living and competitive job market have impacted recruitment and retention and added to the unexpected backlog of cases as a result of a global pandemic. We went to our state legislature, as we do every year, and were successful in securing an increase in salary for incoming Assistant State Attorneys. Though we are grateful for the continued support from our legislators and the increases prosecutors and public defenders have received over the past few years, it is not enough to attract, recruit, and retain the talented and skilled lawyers that our community deserves.
While we used vacancy money to raise our Legislatively funded starting salary to $70,000, it still remains in the bottom 25% paid to entry-level attorneys in Miami. My Leadership Team and I will return to Tallahassee this upcoming session and speak to all our statewide legislators in order to avoid a potential constitutional crisis. I have had several meetings and discussions with key leadership regarding our legislative requests for this session.
I and everyone at your State Attorney’s Office appreciate your support and partnership as we consistently work to find effective ways to keep our community safe and seek justice for victims of crimes. We are grateful for you and look forward to a happy holiday season and a 2025 filled with promise and peace.
Thank you and God Bless,
| Veteran’s Day, observed annually on November 11th, honors the service and sacrifice of all the United States military veterans. Veteran’s Day serves as an important reminder of the dedication, courage, and selflessness of those who have served our country. This day provides us an opportunity to show our gratitude for the men and women who continually fight for our freedom. |
| Throughout November, the State Attorney’s Office participated in several community events to recognize those who serve and give back to our Miami-Dade Veteran Community. |
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State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle attended the Second Annual Veterans Stand Down hosted by the newly elected Chairman of the Board of County Commissioners and District 10 Commissioner Anthony Rodriguez. This free event offered 70+ resources to the public, including our “Second Chance” Seal or Expunge Event, while celebrating and supporting America’s heroes. |
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Community Outreach Representative Luis Martinez and the Justice in Motion (JIM) Bus team joined together to participate in the City of Miami Beach's 16th Annual Veterans Day parade and celebration, where the community gathered to honor the brave men and women who have served our country. |
| Community Outreach Representative Janeen Jones attended the City of Miami Gardens 2024 Operation Veterans Stand Down at the Betty T. Ferguson Recreational Complex. She provided attendees with information on SAO Programs and Services and reviewed criminal records to determine an individual's eligibility to seal or expunge a Miami-Dade arrest |  |
| State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle recently spoke at the National District Attorneys Association Fall 2024 Board and Committee Meetings in San Diego, where she shared information on our Smart Justice approach to prosecution. This important meeting brings together prosecutors, legal experts, community leaders, and policymakers to explore innovative approaches to crime prevention and effective programs. |  |
| “It is always an honor to speak with members of the NDAA as it allows me the opportunity to exchange ideas, perceptions, and creative thoughts on advancing the work we do while collaborating with legal leaders to better protect the communities we serve,” stated Katherine Fernandez Rundle. |
| During her presentation, the State Attorney covered a wide range of important topics, including diversion programs, problem-solving courts, treatment courts, and smart incarceration strategies. Her insights provided valuable perspectives on how these approaches can improve outcomes within the criminal justice system while upholding her mission to protect the community by rehabilitating those we can and incarcerating those we must. |
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This month, we highlight a distinguished member of our SAO family. We present our SAO Profile in Passion - Brenda Mezick. |
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| In 1993, Brenda’s legal hero, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall died. “I remember the quote attributed to his mentor Charles Houston that was ‘“A lawyer’s either a social engineer, or he’s a parasite on society.’ That had a profound impact on me and has always stayed with me." |
| Brenda finished law school not planning to practice law. “I had tried different specializations of law, and nothing really fit. By accident, I got an internship at the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office. It was there that I wrote a brief defending Maryland’s first Hate Crimes statute. It was there where I passionately and irrevocably fell in love with prosecuting.” |
| Though she had already graduated without a job, Georgetown allowed her to interview at the Florida House with the SAO. The Montgomery District Attorney called State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle personally to give a recommendation for Brenda. |
| “Brenda has an instinctive intellectual curiosity that has always enlivened her life. Her ability to see applications of new concepts and ideas has helped broaden our vision of community problems and helped develop concrete approaches to solving those problems,” said State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle. “I know I have put her many talents to work during her time here in Miami-Dade County which clearly stimulated her personal creativity, but she has made the lives of so many people better. That is a legacy of which both she and we can be proud.” |
| “When I got the job, I had never been to Miami let alone Florida. I started at the SAO in 1994. I took the auto train to Orlando and drove down. My first week I did a ride along with Marine Patrol and thought to myself ‘I made the right choice’.” |
| After coming up through the ranks, Brenda became the Chief of County Court. At one point she and two other prosecutors had to argue against a challenge to the Intoxilyzer. It was an en banc hearing with all the judges. The material we presented in cross-examination was so good that the hearing was ended, and the judges decided in our favor.” |
| When Brenda went to the Felony Division, she volunteered to do cases involving DNA admissibility challenges. So besides having a sub-specialization on blood taking in DUI cases, she also specialized in DNA. |
| “I had always been interested in acting and science, as an aside, I guess those both came into play in the courtroom as you present the case and the science, cybercrimes, and DNA evidence. I went on the national prosecutor circuit speaking on DNA defense expert rebuttal. I also wrote the original DNA predicates. With Miami-Dade Police Department Commander Stephanie Stoiloff.” |
| Though she loved being a homicide prosecutor, Brenda moved to the Sexual Battery unit and later to Cyber Crimes in 2008. |
| “During my time in the Cyber Crimes unit, I had to view thousands of images and videos of child pornography which took its toll. My dad who had been a combat Marine recognized what I was going through and said, ‘You think because you are smart that you can beat this, but you can’t’.” |
| In early 2012, Brenda took a step in a different direction accepting a position in the Organized Crime Unit where she learned how to prosecute RICO cases. |
| State Attorney Fernandez Rundle asked Brenda to second chair a Human Trafficking case that had a child porn component and involved a foster care group home. “In that case, I found my niche in the office. |
| In November 2012, Brenda was selected to be the first Human Trafficking prosecutor in the Human Trafficking Unit. “I was able to apply my cyber background and experience prosecuting internet crimes against children. This was a critical asset in the emerging area of Human Trafficking since so much of the commercial exploitation of minors was being advertised and transacted online.” |
| “The State Attorney and I worked to reform the state statute to better mirror the federal statute, most significantly by removing the requirement that you do not have to prove coercion in cases involving minors who cannot legally consent.” |
| The State Attorney promoted me to Chief of Policy for Human Trafficking, and we continued to work on building our legal infrastructure to better protect our victims from traffickers. |
| State Attorney Fernandez Rundle also sent Brenda to conferences to learn more from trauma specialists about neuroscience and trauma-informed care. The SAO Human Trafficking prosecution model was created to be victim-centered and trauma-informed. “We learned that to truly help a victim population suffering so severely from complex trauma, we had to shift our understanding of what it meant to be a successful prosecution. Success was not about maximizing years of incarceration of traffickers with trials many of our victims were too traumatized to endure.” |
| In 2018, after working with the State Attorney on numerous successful legislative initiatives and trial work, Brenda took a step back from working with trauma victims and accepted a position in the Economic Crimes Unit (ECU) but continued to work behind the scenes on legislation to protect minor victims of Human Trafficking called the Child Protection Act. |
| “While at economic crimes I was assigned elderly exploitation cases. I pitched the idea of an elderly unit within the ECU as I realized that these cases were both financially complex and involved victims who often had age-related impairments. Brenda worked with the Chief of Investigations Emiliano Tamayo who had identified early the rising number of financial exploitation of the elderly cases. Then COVID came and State Attorney was not able to open a new unit at that time. |
| “However, the State Attorney allowed me to specialize in these elder exploitation cases. We then followed the pattern that was used to create the Human Trafficking Unit and Task Force. The State Attorney created the SAO Elderly and Vulnerable Adult Taskforce. She also formed, with the partnership of Sen Rene Garcia and Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, the Elder and Vulnerable Adult (EVA) Workgroup. |
| “We began by focusing on the Department of Children and Families (DCF) adult protection reports of which they are mandated to notify us. We discovered that less than 10% of these cases were referred to the SAO for prosecution. So that was one of the first things we handled. I was lucky to count on my colleagues Victims Specialist Carmen Duran and EVA Commander, Christine Molina, and Chief Tamayo who are just as passionate about this topic.” |
| In 2022, the State Attorney asked Brenda to accept the position of Director of the Human Trafficking Unit. She accepted the position while continuing to handle some EVA cases. Brenda has also worked on legislative proposals regarding elder and vulnerable adult exploitation. She has also helped to work on the implementation of an effective process for our criminal justice system to comply with the 2018 Vulnerable Adult Act that was created for the emergency protection of vulnerable adults from financial exploitation |
| Looking back on her career at the SAO Brenda explains that I discovered on the job that my strongest talent was helping to create legal infrastructure. SA Fernandez Rundle is a visionary who allowed me to do the work I was best at and provided me with an opportunity to make an impact. I am unbelievably grateful that the universe paired me with the right State Attorney to do this work.” |
| Now after almost 31 years of service, Brenda will be retiring on December 5th, 2024 to focus on family, focus on voice acting, exploring her artistic side, and traveling – lots of traveling. |
| Brenda’s advice to current ASAs is: “As a prosecutor, it is critical to educate yourself on trauma. I dedicated my professional life to being a champion for victims, but I became a better prosecutor when I learned about the neuroscience of trauma and its impact on our victims. Prosecution provides an extraordinary opportunity to make our corner of the judicial system better. Few have that opportunity. Use that privilege while you can. Thank you for all the hard work you are doing and will continue to do.” |
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