Does Stephen Cody Play Fair? By Geniusofdespair

Stephen Cody has an ethics complaint against South Miami Mayor Philip Stoddard.

Stephen Cody was hired by someone when we were examining ballots for the Lynda Bell/Gene Flinn election -- I was there and he was watching us. As I watched him looking over our shoulders, I thought "scum." After he had his license suspended as a lawyer by the Supreme Court, I made peace with Natacha Seijas's lawyer/friend Stephen Cody - even friending him on Facebook when he posted cute pictures of his granddaughter Olivia.  Those days are long over.

Cody doesn't play fair. He can be vindictive. He ain't no friend of mine.  I unfriended him in February, when he was attacking Phil Stoddard. He had Valerie Newman do a robocall for his PAC. Everyone knows that Valerie is a known enemy of Stoddard  and has been accused of questionable activity in that regard.

My last words to Cody as I unfriended him:

I doubt you care as much about feminism as you do at helping your pals at FPL.

 I really think that Cody,  in a corner of his clouded brain,  thinks he is being a good guy, but I am apt to believe he is just a hired gun. He has used this tactic before, in Miami Lakes for instance. I just do not like someone who plays by his murky rules and I don't like anyone lecturing me on what kind of a Me-Too survivor I should be. Sorry Steve, ethics rules are not in effect. No response needed by you. And since when does Ethics do anything anyway? This case is a no winner for them. The Mayor asked Council. That should have ended it. And, does Steve Cody have standing if he is not a lobbyist?

Did this make Stephen Cody a bottom feeder?

You are a bully still, trying to explain it away as you hide your supporters behind a 501-C4's.  I wrote this in 2012 about him:

The big question always comes down to: Who is paying Stephen Cody? He doesn't appear to do work when he isn't paid. He charged Natacha Seijas and her PAC's a small fortune over the years. He has had a shadow client before like he has in Miami Lakes. He tried to get Eugene Flinn thrown out of the District 8 County Commission race. Who paid him for that? No one knows.

We have an example of the importance that Cody puts on getting paid in a recent (4/13/2011) Florida Bar "Admonishment" where he was fined about $2,000 for minor misconduct. In the complaint, even though he had a $5,000 retainer, he did not answer calls from his client so she stopped paying 2 installments due. In return, he says for NON-PAYMENT, Cody then failed to send his client correspondence advising his client of the status of the appeal. In Cody's signed admission he stated:

"Respondent (him)  failed  to  send  written  correspondence  to Vazquez advising her of the status of the appeal and/or his failure to file the appeal due to her nonpayment."

 So why is Stephen Cody in Miami Lakes snapping photos and passing out 15 pages of stuff, most of it dismissed ethics complaints (deemed frivolous), at a meeting in Miami Lakes?  Kevin Morejon, a 20 year resident said he wanted to know.

Kevin said he went to the meeting held by Mayor Pizzi with 75  to 100 of his neighbors.

Pizzi was having the Town Meeting at the Royal Oaks Park Community Center  on January 17th at 7:00 pm. The topics were public safety, park and lake issues for homeowners in Miami Lakes. The town of Miami Lakes is a very long way from Cody's Palmetto Bay office. When people arrived, they were confronted by Stephen Cody, and some workers he brought with him, according to Kevin Morejon. He said Cody and his crew confronted everyone going into the meeting and passed out a  bunch of pages with an unflattering photo of Mayor Pizzi stapled on the front.  According to Pizzi the content of the pages were an old ethics report of false allegations against him. He said the multiple page flyer cut off the portion of the report that said that these were allegations from years ago and that they were all dismissed.

Morejon said that he didn't know who the group were crashing the meeting, until he heard an employee call the man in the blue shirt Mr. Cody. He said they were disturbing the residents and they were unprofessional. Morejon said "I thought it was wrong that they gave under-age kids the stapled papers.  Mr. Cody was taking numerous photographs too. I thought he was a photographer at first. My guess is he took 25 to 30 snapshots. It was very disruptive." Apparently for a time he was blocking the view of  Mayor Pizzi as he was talking, filming or snapping photos.

Morejon said, after I revealed Cody was an attorney: "Now you tell me he is an attorney. If he is a lawyer, I am surprised he was doing that.  Some residents left because they were scared." Then I said to Kevin: "What would you think if I told you that he was Natacha Seijas' lawyer?"  He said: "I would freak out. Why would she stoop to his level if she sent him? She might as well have been there herself giving out the papers." He said a lot of people ripped up the papers in front of Cody.

I also spoke to Mary Collins, of Miami Lakes who, like Morejon, wanted to know why Cody was in Miami Lakes. She said, "Why is Cody so interested in Miami Lakes he doesn't even live here?" Good question. If I had, to guess, this is who I think is paying Cody.  I told Mary that he was once Natacha Seijas's attorney. She said: "I didn't realize he was her lawyer but I did not sign that recall petition."