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By Billy Shields Click here to view the YouTube video. On the video, Mario Garcia is depicted introducing himself as a "chief master independent contractor" to the United Cities Group and offers to provide legal services to network members. "I've been chosen to provide members of the network of TUC with all of the legal services to all our network members," Garcia says in the promotional video with the group's emblem in the background. He is running against Miami-Dade assistant state attorney Stacy Glick for a circuit court seat being vacated by her father, Leonard Glick. But Garcia now disavows any relationship with the United Cities. He said he attended some informational sessions but decided not to become affiliated with the group and severed ties with it two years ago. Garcia said he learned of the video's appearance on the Web for the first time this week after the Daily Business Review e-mailed him the YouTube link. Asked how the organization obtained the footage, Garcia replied: "I don’t know. It looks like they took that footage from one of the initial meetings." He added, "We’re going to obviously take action" against United Cities. U.S. District Judge Alan Gold in Miami issued a preliminary injunction against United Cities after armed men dressed in black entered Bank of America branches in Palmetto Bay and Cutler Bay, blocked exits and tried to seize bank assets on behalf of the group last month. United Cities presented "fake court documents to persuade local law enforcement officials into assisting them in 'foreclosing' entire bank branches," the bank said in court filings. Garcia said he was initially intrigued by the group's concept but became worried when its members couldn't come up with plausible explanations for what they were doing. "The concept in and of itself had all kinds of wonderful legalities in it," he said. "But I kept asking the question, 'What is [the alternate currency] backed by,' and I couldn’t get an answer." Calls to United Cities trustee Paul Woods, a Miami attorney, were not returned. Bank of America spokeswoman Britney Sheehan declined to comment on the litigation. Garcia also is mentioned prominently in a Miami-Dade Circuit Court case tied to a disputed sale of the Spanish-language Christian radio station WOIR-AM. He is not named as a defendant. An investment company called Amanecer Investment was formed in 2003 to lend money to WOIR after it encountered financial difficulties and was threatened with foreclosure, court documents say. The investment company and the station settled a year ago, with the station agreeing to pay $1.6 million. But WOIR filed an affidavit in March saying it couldn't come up with the money, and Amanecer secured a judgment against station president Frank Lopez and the station. Amanecer sued the station and Lopez after discovering plans to sell the station to Garcia Communications, a Florida corporation formed in March and listing Garcia as the sole corporate officer. The investment company claimed the sale was an attempt to avoid paying the final judgment. Garcia wouldn’t comment on the pending litigation. "We're trying to help a couple of pastors sort some things out with a Hispanic Christian radio station," he said. "It's a religious matter, so we’re just trying to obviously help out. Churches should never be in court."
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A Feast
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