State Rep. John Patrick Julien — a married father of five — owns a three-bedroom, two-bathroom house in a secluded street in North Miami Beach.
But the freshman Democrat says he doesn’t live there.
In order to meet the state’s constitutional requirement that lawmakers reside in the districts they represent, Julien claims he lives with friends in a smaller house less than two miles away.
A neighbor who has long known the former North Miami Beach city councilman says that’s not the case — and that Julien only started showing up in the neighborhood this week after a Miami Herald reporter began asking questions.
“He hasn’t ever lived there that I know of,” said Mary Hilton, who lives across the street from Juliens’ supposed housemates, another former North Miami Beach city councilman, Robert Taylor, 64, and Taylor’s girlfriend, Rose Miller, 77.
Hilton is wrong, said Julien, 48, in an interview Thursday.
He said he has lived with Taylor — whom Julien described as “my best friend in the whole wide world” — since September, after winning an August primary to his House seat. He was unopposed in the November general election.
“The bottom line is, where I live is where I live,” Julien said. “I don’t need to explain it to anyone.”
Does he claim a homestead exemption
on the house he owns?
Posted by: Dt | July 23, 2011 at 08:25 AM
LETS JUST CALL IT "KARMA"
Posted by: CITIZENS OPINION | July 23, 2011 at 05:44 PM