Pembroke Pines rebuffed again in fight over police union texts. Here’s the latest
Pembroke Pines has suffered another setback in its attempt to obtain the text messages at the center of the city’s months-long legal battle with its police union, according to court records.
According to a June 17 order, a federal judge struck down a motion accusing union president Scott Kushi and Pembroke Pines Police Department officer Joel Cuarezma — members of the Florida State Lodge Fraternal Order of Police’s Pines branch — of wrongly withholding the details of a year-old text conversation about the union’s collective bargaining agreement during a May deposition.
The June 3 motion, filed by the city, PPPD Chief Jose Vargas and former Assistant Chief Carlos Bermudez, claimed Kushi and Cuarezma failed to justify their refusal to answer questions about the messages’ contents, which they contend are public record, and called for their disclosure in a new deposition.
FOP called the city’s demands excessive and “out of the scope” of the lawsuit in a June 9 response, maintaining that the request is a violation of their Fourth Amendment right against unlawful search and seizure.
Federal courts agreed, adding that the case’s “atypical” basis was ultimately the deciding factor for keeping the text messages under wraps until a final hearing determines whether they’re public record.
“To disclose the content of the text messages would, it seems, in effect moot this case, as [FOP] filed it to keep those text messages private,” judge Panayotta Augustin-Birch wrote in the June 17 order.
“At the same time, [the city, Vargas and Cuarezma] have not explained why they need to know the precise content of the text messages in order to litigate [FOP’s] constitutional claims.”
Court records also show the Fort Lauderdale-based judge canceled a June 22 discovery hearing alongside the order.
Neither the FOP nor the City of Pembroke Pines’ attorneys — Paul Daragjati and Christopher Stearnes, respectively — have responded to the Pembroke Pines News’ request for comment as of June 22.
How we got here
The legal battle started with a June 5, 2025, email sent by 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 Kushi, the president of FOP’s Pembroke Pines branch, who advised that the call for shift swaps could breach the union’s CBA.
Cuarezma advised Feiner on his talks with Kushi, adding that he planned to recall the email “to avoid a violation of the CBA,” according to 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, who also formally created the records request on behalf of PPPD.
In a May 8 deposition, Cuarezma testified that “there were approximately four or five text messages exchanged,” Augustin-Birch’s June 17 order shows.
FOP leadership filed the federal lawsuit against the PPPD and Vargas in August, adding Bermudez as a defendant in March.
Vargas and Bermudez are being sued in their official and individual capacities.
What’s next
The FOP is now gunning for permanent injunctive relief, which would put an end to Pines officials’ demands for the messages, with a jury trial scheduled to take place in a West Palm Beach courtroom in August.
The union’s request for a temporary restraining order to keep FOP from having to hand over the text messages before the final hearing was denied by federal judge Ed Artau in a March 30 order.
Artau dubbed the city’s records request “invalid and unenforceable” due to being executed by a Pembroke Pines employee on behalf of the city, adding that “the ‘agency’ would be making the request from itself, which would mean the agency already has access to the records.”
That means Cuarezma and Kushi can’t lawfully face criminal penalties for not complying with the request, but it also means their Fourth Amendment rights weren’t violated since the FOP members weren’t subject to search or seizure, the judge said.
But if the city continues its investigation and orders the two officers to hand over those texts, Daragjati, the FOP attorney, believes the court would come to see it as a constitutional violation.
“We’re not going to stop the case at this point because we still have an allegation of a Fourth Amendment violation. The city has not dropped this investigation against our officers,” Daragjati told the Pembroke Pines News on April 1.
“ ... If the city continues with their investigation ... my interpretation of the court’s order is that the court would also see that as a violation of the Fourth Amendment.”
According to the city’s attorney, much remains to be seen despite the March 30 order.
“All of these things remain subject to dispute,” Stearns told the Pembroke Pines News on March 31. “The preliminary ruling is narrow: This public records request was invalid. Of course, the City has a right to a final hearing on this issue.”
