Raul Martinez, the former Hialeah mayor who is running for Congress, denounced incumbent Republican Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart Thursday for using a former Hialeah police officer as a spokesman on his latest anti-Martinez television ad.

Bill O'Connell, a retired Hialeah police captain, appears in the ad accusing Martinez of being the ``most corrupt politician you will ever see in your life.''

''The new ad is a former disgruntled police officer that cannot speak for police officers, and had Lincoln Diaz-Balart vetted this individual he would have found out very easily by just calling the city that this was the police officer that tried to steal from the city,'' Martinez said. ``He was caught. He pretended to be injured.''

Carlos Curbelo, a Diaz-Balart spokesman, responded: ``Raul Martinez is angry because Bill O'Connell is saying the truth about his record of disgraceful and embarrassing behavior. It is typical of him to violently lash out against anyone who disagrees with him.''

At a news conference outside the Hialeah Police Department, Martinez's campaign released copies of city documents listing investigations of alleged improprieties by O'Connell.

''The documents,'' a campaign press release said, ``detail a long history of reprimands from the Hialeah Police Department and the city of Hialeah.''

Martinez was joined at the news conference by several former Hialeah police officers, including former Chief Rolando Bolaños.

Among purported transgressions by O'Connell that Martinez and Bolaños said they considered the worst was an alleged attempt to secure disability while at the same time passing an agility test overseen by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

O'Connell said all his disability claims were legitimate.

''To say that I would cheat the tax payers out of any money is ludicrous,'' said O'Connell. ``They accused me of faking an injury but yet they put me on disability.''

Join the discussion

Note: If this is your first time using our NEW commenting system, you will have to LOG OUT and then LOG BACK IN.

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.CommentBody@

@Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@