Grandview condo owners use the ballot box to speak their minds. Photo by Ryan Brown

The Grandview Palace is a 532-unit condominium building in North Bay Village, a community unto itself with its own convenience store, restaurant, bar and private docks, which were used as a location for a recent episode of The Sopranos.

“I saw Paulie Walnuts right over there!” one resident said, pointing to the docks.

It seems that the Grandview is also the set of its own real-life drama that includes accusations of e-mail fraud and identity theft.

The Grandview, which made the cover of the Miami Herald in 2005 after being hit especially hard by Hurricane Wilma, recently held a condo board election for two open seats of the five that make up the board. The other three seats are occupied by developers who converted the apartment complex into a condominium, giving them a majority on all matters relating to the Grandview that come to vote.

After Wilma hit, code violations, including a deteriorating emergency system and numerous leaks, were discovered by residents and city of North Bay Village inspectors.

The discovery of these code violations led the city of North Bay Village to file suit against the developers who own the Grandview, Charles Edwards and James Edwards, ordering them to prove to Miami-Dade Judge Ronald Friedman that the building is up to code. This suit is ongoing. (The Edwardses did not return phone calls left at Grandview’s management office at deadline.)

A former resident and Grandview board member, local artist Victor-Hugo Vaca, has devoted a blog to the code violations at the Grandview.

“My foremost concern for the Grandview is the sprinkler system … it’s a human safety issue,” Vaca said.

For residents of the condo, board elections are important. Many residents see getting one of their friends elected as giving them a voice to advocate for remedying the building’s problems.

The candidates for the open board seats were Grandview homeowners Sophia Lima, Ed Agudelo and Patsy Stecco.

Lima and Agudelo are both members of the Grandview Homeowners Group, a small advocate group of Grandview residents, and Stecco works for First Equitable Realty, co-owned by James Edwards.

“I felt that it was unfair that Patsy Stecco, who works for First Equitable Realty, was running for a homeowner spot when there’s only two,” said Grandview Homeowners Group member Todd Louis.

This sentiment was echoed by a number of Grandview residents.

During the lead-up to the election, in March of this year, Grandview residents began receiving e-mails from another concerned Grandview resident, a reclusive businessman named Julio Lago.

Lago’s e-mails criticized the Grandview Homeowners Group (whose members were left off the e-mail list) because of its support of the lawsuit against Grandview’s developers, as well as specific homeowners including Todd Louis and Sophia Lima.

“Why can’t you talk with the developer and try to get things done without all the attorney fees?” one of the first e-mails from Lago said.

Alejandro Serra, a recipient of the e-mail, forwarded the electronic message to Todd Louis, who in turn replied to Lago, whom he had never met or spoken to before.

“The next time you mention my name in an email you send out to multiple parties please include me in the distribution and show a little spine,” Louis wrote.

Louis, who served on the Grandview board-appointed security committee, went on to list the reasons why the suit against the developer was necessary, including the immediate importance of a functional emergency system.

The e-mails started to get more confrontational.

“Ignore the false statements of Todd Louis.… Todd also cost the Association over $100,000 by complaints to the building inspector, asking him to put violation notices on our building!” read one of the later e-mails from Julio Lago.

“You claimed that I cost the association $100,000. Are you on drugs?” Louis responded. “That statement is untrue, ignorant and libelous.… You think I single-handedly coerced the city building official to write violations for the building? So he just made up violations out of thin air because he's a gullible son of a gun?”

Louis became suspicious of the e-mails and started to wonder if someone besides the real Julio Lago was behind them.

“From what I understand, Julio Lago is a very busy businessman who isn’t very tech savvy, so he’s a good mark for identity theft,” said Louis.

But how was Louis to find out who was really behind the e-mails?

“I compared the IP address I got from the person who read lago_julio@yahoo.com’s e-mail and I compared it to e-mails I had received from Patsy Stecco. What do you know? They matched up,” says Louis, who sent an e-mail with the headline, “How to follow the e-mail trail using your own e-mails,” to Grandview Palace residents, with detailed instructions on how to look up and compare IP addresses.

A letter from Julio Lago soon reached the desk of North Bay Village commissioner and Grandview resident Reinaldo Trujillo.

“Please be advised that I have never owned an e-mail address such as Lago Julio@Yahoo.com, and at no time have written the thread of e-mails regarding the Grandview Palace and/or any of its members,” the letter reads.

Initially, Patsy Stecco refused to comment on the incident to the SunPost.

“You can talk to my lawyer,” she said, but soon called back denying the allegations and provided the office number of Julio Lago, who did not answer or respond to repeated calls and messages from the SunPost.

Out of 162 votes cast in the condo board elections, Sophia Lima received 128, Ed Agudelo received 99 and Patsy Stecco received 28, giving the Grandview Homeowners Group two seats.

Comments? E-mail ryan@miamisunpost.com.