Pembroke Pines police chiefs face union lawsuit over texts, court records show
Two Pembroke Pines police chiefs are being sued in a dispute between city officials and a local police union about whether private text messages are public records, according to court records.
A December motion to name Chief Jose J. Vargas of the Pembroke Pines Police Department — who was originally accused in his official capacity of unconstitutionally demanding the messages — as an individual defendant was granted by a federal judge on March 10, records show.
Assistant Chief Carlos Bermudez was also added as a defendant in an amended complaint submitted to the court in December and approved on March 10. He’s being sued in his official and individual capacity.
The lawsuit update, announced in a Florida State Lodge Fraternal Order of Police letter on March 17, followed the assistant chief’s retirement from the department on March 16.
The Fraternal Order of Police is accusing Bermudez of launching a wrongful internal affairs investigation on the two officers who refused to hand over their private text messages to PPPD.
“This ruling ... reinforces the principle that leadership decisions affecting officers’ constitutional rights carry personal responsibility,” the letter says. “This ensures that those responsible for the decisions at issue can be held personally accountable under federal law.”
How we got here
The legal battle started with a June 5, 2025, email sent by PPPD Officer Joel Cuarezma — then a sergeant with the bicycle patrol unit — and commissioned by his supervisor, Captain Adam Feiner, soliciting volunteers to cover the two-day shift of a new bicycle officer who was attending trainings, according to court documents.
“This option would obviate or otherwise minimize the need for potential overtime payment(s) as the volunteering officer would simply work the swapped shift,” Feiner detailed in a Sept. 4 written statement.
Shortly after sending the email, Cuarezma received a text from PPPD Detective Scott Kushi — the president of FOP’s Pembroke Pines branch — who advised the officer that the call for shift swaps could breach the union’s collective bargaining agreement (CBA).
Cuarezma advised Feiner on his talks with Kushi, adding that he planned to recall the email “to avoid a violation of the CBA,” reads an Aug. 11 complaint, but the captain told him to “leave the email as sent and that he would handle the matter himself.”
The bicycle patrol sergeant retracted the email on June 9, and then Feiner, who disagreed with the interpretation of the CBA, requested that Cuarezma send copies of his and Kushi’s text messages discussing the contract.
Cuarezma “respectfully declined” to do so and was notified he was the subject of an internal investigation two days later by Internal Affairs sergeant Robert Sorensen.
In a Sept. 25 hearing, city officials claimed that Sorensen requested the messages as part of the internal investigation “of his own volition,” leading FOP to demand he be removed from his post and interviewed as a witness.
When Sorensen was interviewed by the department that night, he said Bermudez ordered him to make the public records request.
PPPD’s Internal Affairs unit refused to interview the assistant chief as a witness when asked to by the police union.
“There’s a provision in Florida law that says that communications between a local union leader and one of his or her members is protected speech as long as it’s dealing with labor-related stuff,” Paul Daragjati, FOP’s lead attorney, told the Pembroke Pines News in February.
According to Daragjati, “(The city attempted) to violate both of these members’ Fourth Amendment rights” — which protects individuals from unreasonable search or seizure — by demanding the text messages the officers say were shared via their personal cellphones during off-duty hours.
But the city countered in court documents that state law defines communications “made or received pursuant to law or ordinance or in connection with the transaction of official business by any agency,” as public record, even if sent on a private device.
To that, FOP says Cuarezma and Kushi’s exchange didn’t affect how the officer performed his duties, but instead were discussions about how to interpret the CBA.
“This is normal. The Federal Rules provide that courts are required to freely give leave to amend,” city attorney Christopher Stearns said March 18 in response to the Pembroke Pines News’ request for comment.
“For whatever reason, the relationship between management and the union down there, it’s a little bit tense,” Daragjati said. “You have the issue of what point does the Public Records Act end and the Fourth Amendment begin. It’s just one of those things that we just have to get a court to answer.”
What’s next?
FOP and Kushi’s August request for a temporary restraining order that would prohibit the city “from pursuing any further administrative and/or investigative proceedings against Kushi for his response” to the records request hasn’t been ruled on by a judge as of March 19.
A trial period for the case is scheduled to start April 27 and determine via a final hearing whether the police union’s petition for permanent injunctive relief — which would put an end to PPPD’s request for the text messages — is granted.
Broward FOP will continue to provide lawsuit updates “as the case proceeds through federal court,” per the union’s March 17 letter.
