Developer once tied to Meek family charged with fraud

The Miami Herald: Dennis Stackhouse surrendered Thursday to face charges that he stole nearly $1 million from a proposed taxpayer-supported biopharmaceutical park intended to revitalize Liberty City. A Miami-Dade judge on Wednesday signed an arrest warrant charging Stackhouse, 67, with two counts of first-degree organized scheme to defraud and two counts of first-degree grand theft. His arrest comes more than two years after The Miami Herald reported that the developer used double billings and fake invoices to siphon at least $500,000 from the failed Poinciana Park project...

...Stackhouse also used some loan money for political influence. He donated $10,000 to a nonprofit, the James E. Scott Community Association, known as JESCA, then run by Miami-Dade Commissioner Dorrin Rolle. He also paid at least $40,000 in consulting fees to former U.S. Rep. Carrie Meek -- whose son, Democratic congressman and U.S. Senate candidate Kendrick Meek, tried to secure federal funds for Stackhouse's Poinciana project...

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