Tuesday in the Park With the SWAT Team

By Angie Hargot

Bear Smirnoff… one of his many names, according to county records.

It was last week on Tuesday evening, around sunset. About a dozen dog owners and park-goers milled about Pine Tree Park at 4499 Pine Tree Drive, in Miami Beach. Most of them had no idea of the impending debacle about to occur in their own backyard.

Witness accounts and the ensuing police report give the picture that it was indeed an exciting night at the park.

A long-term debate had been brewing among residents neighboring the park. Two opposing groups, the Orchard Park Neighborhood Association and a group of dog owners who call themselves the Responsible Dog Owners of Miami Beach, had gone head to head before the city at an April 25 Miami Beach Neighborhood Community Affairs Committee meeting over the issue of installing lighting in Pine Tree Park and its adjoining “Bark Park.”

City Hall was packed, and split into two factions. The Orchard Park Neighborhood Association was dead-set against lighting the park, which, it argued, was a “passive park” and not supposed to be used as a dog park to begin with. Other residents and the Responsible Dog Owners group wanted to extend the useful hours of the park by installing lighting that would add safety in what they said was a crime-ridden park.

The Orchard Park Neighborhood Association is headed up by Henry Lowenstein, an attorney and Mid-Beach resident who is increasingly making a name for himself and his organization as proponents of the residents’ interests.

Accusations flew from all sides. Citizens had alerted Police to drug needles found in the park by those claiming the site is a haven for debauchery and drug use. Other residents charged that the needles were planted there to make the park seem more dangerous than it is. The item stalled in City Hall, as board members wanted some amicable resolution among residents.

The pro-lighting faction was led by a man known as Bear Smirnoff. Was being the operative word. Smirnoff has since been “let go” from his volunteer position with the Responsible Dog Owners of Miami Beach, according to Lucia Greer, the organization’s president.

“He wasn’t using the methods and means of the Responsible Dog Owners,” in relation to the Pine Tree Park issue, Greer said.

Smirnoff was in charge of the group’s Pine Tree Park Committee for two or three weeks, she said.

But Smirnoff’s battle with some park users spilled out of City Hall and into the park. One man, listed in the ensuing police report as Jeffrey Puleo, and Smirnoff got into an altercation.

According to the officer’s narrative, the two have had prior disputes at the park. Smirnoff called police stating that Puleo “was threatening him with a shotgun,” the report says.

Police responded in emergency mode.

According to witnesses Smirnoff, who had called the police on many occasions to report unleashed dogs in the park, called police from his cell phone as the altercation ensued. In the midst of the dispute between Puleo and Smirnoff, police heard the word “shotgun,” and responded accordingly.

“Six police cars with sirens screaming” arrived, according to witness David Marchant, publisher of the OffshoreAlert Newsletter, a publication that reports on offshore financial centers.

Police came rushing into the park, Marchant says, with assault weapons drawn.

“They said ‘Put your arms in the air’ and had about a dozen people do a 360 [degree turn]. They were yelling ‘Who’s got the gun?’ and we kept saying ‘Nobody.’”

Marchant says officers interviewed everyone at the scene and then handcuffed Smirnoff. “It was like a scene from a movie. The dogs were going bloody crazy.”

There was no gun, according to police, but the incident report says Smirnoff was concealing something else, and it got him arrested.

“[Smirnoff] presented me with a digital recorder and played the conversation he had with [Puleo]. [Puleo] stated [Smirnoff] recorded the conversation without his consent or knowledge,” the officer’s account says.

Police arrested Smirnoff, and he was charged with two counts of illegally tape-recording a person without their knowledge. Florida Statute 934.03 states that “All parties must consent to the recording or the disclosure of the contents of any wire, oral or electronic communication.”

Smirnoff was booked at 10:06 p.m. at the county’s Pre-Trial Detention Center at 1321 NW 13th St. in Miami, and released on two $5,000 bonds the next day.

County records show a lengthy criminal and civil record, including cocaine possession, loitering, prowling and forgery, associated with the name Bear Smirnoff.

Also associated with that record are eight known aliases, one of which, Marc Bryant Reidler, is understood to be Smirnoff’s original name — and the name he was booked under Tuesday. He may have legally changed it to “Bear Smirnoff.”

Other names listed as aliases: Marc Rowmanoff, Marc B. Reid, Marc Reid and Bear Smirnoffi. The date of birth recorded with the names differs in year, but is always listed as April 1: April Fool’s Day. Smirnoff has told the SunPost “Bear Smirnoff” is his real name.

“He keeps calling [the police] about dogs off their leashes,” Marchant said. “The cop was laughing. [Smirnoff] is mentally disturbed. It’s ironic. He’s the sort of person he wants the lights in the park to protect against.”

Police spokesman Sgt. Robert Hernandez said Smirnoff most likely wasn’t charged Tuesday with filing a false police report or making a prank call because it’s unclear in the context of events if that’s exactly what happened. Hernandez admits that a dispatcher hearing Smirnoff’s still-on-the-line phone conversation mentioning gun activity wouldn’t wait to get the police on the scene.

“They want to get the officers there,” Hernandez says. “There could have been something lost in the interpretation.”

“He accused one guy of coming to his house and putting a shotgun to his head,” Marchant said. “The police were still on the line. We were in an argument and he put his phone down, and we heard him mumbling the address.”

Hernandez was, however, unable to discern if Smirnoff’s alleged record or known aliases sent up a red flag for the responding officers.

“If it was discovered that he was giving police a false name, he would have been charged with resisting [arrest] without violence,” Hernandez said.

Janelle Hall, spokeswoman for the Miami-Dade County Corrections Department, is unsure how a suspect such as Smirnoff would be associated with criminal activity and not investigated further before his release.

But Henry Lowenstein has a theory.

“He does not carry I.D., and [once arrested] they pull up the rest of his arrest records, but they won’t figure that out until trial, so he always makes bail,” Lowenstein said. “There’s been a ton of [other] cases where this has happened. It’s a time lapse. It takes some time to process.”

Lowenstein says he’s seen this time lapse before in his own profession as an attorney handling customs issues. “There are apparently so many records, with customs sometimes it takes six months. There’s a backlog in comparing fingerprints.”

Hall insists the records do not take that long to compare. She says the fingerprinting process doesn’t really have a lapse, and each case of release on bond is different.

That doesn’t make some members of the community feel much better.

“He was released from jail and showed up at a community meeting for the [Miami] Heart Institute. He can walk out of jail and hug a city commissioner,” Lowenstein said. “You can see the depravity. He’s a very dangerous man, but they say the best place to hide is out in the open.”

Smirnoff could not be reached for comment by deadline.

County records show Smirnoff was again booked by authorities this Tuesday night after his bond was revoked, allegedly for providing incorrect information about financial assets.

At press time, Smirnoff remained in custody with no bond set, according to the Corrections Department.