By Fred Grimm – February 2, 2013

It doesn’t much matter if developers employ lowdown tactics; if they wheedle, cajole, bully, induce, mislead, secretly manipulate, pay off — whatever it takes to wrest approval for controversial projects. Unseemly, it turns out, is not the same as illegal. After a month-long trial a Miami-Dade jury last week went through a verdict form with a long checklist enumerating the ways the Related Group might have inveigled approval for a bayfront condo project next to Mercy Hospital in Coconut Grove. The jury voted yes — 28 times. Jurors found that Related held backroom meetings with former Mayor Manny Diaz and various Miami city commissioners trying to elicit zoning variances for the three luxury condo towers. They found that the builder had hired well-connected lobbyists to work the city commission. That Related hired another set of lobbyists to make sure the county commission wouldn’t interfere.

Read the full story on www.miamiherald.com