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Article Courtesy of The Key News
By Tony Winton
Published June 8, 2019
Two Key Biscayne
apartment owners are being threatened with
possible legal action if a video made at a
Key Colony Condominium meeting earlier this
year isn’t taken down from YouTube. Letters
sent by the EmeraldBay Condominium
Association state the video contains
allegedly “defamatory” statements, but did
not provide specific details.
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The March 26 letters
to Key Colony owners Matt Bramson and Maria Bueno concern a
Jan. 7 meeting at the complex. Bueno made and published the
videotape; Bramson had called the meeting as then-president
of the Key Colony master association about a pending
election dispute. Both were among four candidates vying for
election to the association’s board of directors.
“The EmeraldBay Association demands your removal of the
aforementioned videos from YouTube,” says the March 26
letter to Bueno. “Should you not comply with the foregoing
request, the Association may pursue all available legal
action to protect its rights” wrote Jorge Cavalier, the
president of the EmeraldBay Condominium.
“I was sent a personally threatening, intimidating,
harassing letter,” Bueno said.
Bramson defended Bueno, saying she had a legal right to take
the video. He rebuffed the demand and suggested EmeraldBay
residents wouldn’t approve of the takedown demand.
“The resources of the owners of EmeraldBay should be used
more appropriately in my opinion than having you or their
fiduciary representatives engaged in this sort of activity,”
Bramson wrote. |
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Key Colony board member Christian Hosford, right, and
association President Matt Bramson, left, during a gathering of unit
owners, Jan. 7, 2019
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Cavalier said some comments made in the video tape “spoke ill” of two
EmeraldBay members, Antonio Camejo and Luisa Conway. Both Camejo and Conway
are also officers of the Key Biscayne Condominium Presidents’ Council, which
often takes public stances on Village issues.
When asked to identify the specific comments that were “defamatory,”
Cavalier said he could not immediately recall them. Camejo could not provide
an example of specific defamatory statements by either Bramson or Bueno. He
said the publication on YouTube was “totally negative for the community” and
that Bueno should remove it. He also took issue with comments made by the
association’s attorney. Conway did not return messages for comment.
The two videos run about 37 minutes in total and feature a number of
residents talking about the dispute, which centers on the submission of
candidate statements for circulation to voters, even though they were
submitted after the due date. Ultimately, the association’s board decided to
not circulate the candidate statements, Bramson said.
In an ironic twist, ballots in the election were not even tallied because of
failure to meet a turnout threshold. As a result, Bramson and the other
incumbent representative from the Botanica Condominium retained their
positions on Key Colony’s board, Bramson said.
Bueno said she stands by her posting of the videos. “They are trying to have
public information taken down. I believe in free speech. I believe in the
First Amendment.”
RULES REGARDING AUDIO AND
VIDEO RECORDING OF MEETINGS AND UNIT OWNER PARTICIPATION AT MEETINGS |
