One Sotheby’s International Realty’s top commercial broker was back in Miami-Dade criminal court last week.
Manny Chamizo entered a no contest plea to a misdemeanor stalking charge and was sentenced to a year of probation, in a case in which the state alleged Chamizo stalked and harassed the former owners of a commercial property in Coral Gables.
He was also ordered to stay away from the victims, Eddy and Adriana Fernandez, for a year.
Chamizo faced a felony stalking charge, but the state reduced it to a misdemeanor.
Chamizo was accused of sending threatening text messages, letters and other mail to the Fernandezes. An affiliate of Miami-based One Sotheby’s sued the Fernandezes’ All in One Investment Properties in 2020 for a commission on the 2019 sale of the office building at 3251 Ponce de Leon Boulevard.
Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago’s former brokerage joined the lawsuit as a plaintiff and settled his part in 2022. Lago is friendly with Chamizo, whom he has re-appointed to the city’s Waterway Advisory Board over the years. Chamizo is in his fourth term, which ends this summer. Chamizo has contributed to Lago’s campaign: A company controlled by Chamizo and his wife cut a $500 check to Lago in 2020.
The lawsuit, which remains open, alleges that Chamizo (and Lago) were owed a 2 percent commission on the sale, and that Eddy Fernandez secretly went behind the brokers’ backs to continue negotiating and ultimately close a deal without them.
Chamizo’s attorney, Brian Tannebaum, said that now that the criminal case is closed, “the Fernandezes still owe Mr. Chamizo the money they owed him over 4 years ago.”
Chamizo did not respond to a request for comment.
Adriana Fernandez told The Real Deal that the civil dispute “quickly turned into a relentless, agonizing nightmare” that occurred while her husband was being treated for cancer.
One letter Chamizo allegedly sent included a matchbox with a single burnt match and a note reading “We can get to you.”
All of the letters, she said, were sealed with a label that read: “Why are you not dead yet so we can f**k your wife already?”
“It was a constant barrage of threats and disturbing messages, which he sent not just to my husband, but also included my young daughter and me,” she said.
The Fernandezes said they were shocked by the judge’s sentencing, which they called lenient.
“The outcome that we expected was for him to have some time in jail. Unfortunately, we were in this process for three-and-a-half years to end up with this type of ruling,” Eddy Fernandez told TRD. “That said, at least Chamizo, who has done so much damage to us emotionally and mentally, has a year of probation and a record of stalking and the stay away orders. We know for a fact once the stay away order has lapsed, he won’t have any guardrails.”
The family also filed a lawsuit against One Sotheby’s in June.
Chamizo has hung his license with Daniel and Mayi de la Vegas’ One Sotheby’s since 2017. He’s consistently the firm’s top commercial broker, and held that title as recently as last year.
One Sotheby’s did not respond to a request for comment.
“This was all for a real estate transaction. That’s what’s really disappointing. MDLV [One Sotheby’s legal entity] kept him,” Adriana Fernandez said. “They kept somebody that harassed a family while their husband was trying to survive, because he had stage IV cancer, even though there was proof it was coming from [Chamizo’s] house.”
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