Woman Accused of Churning Out Phony Disabled-Parking Passes Gets a Pass on Jail Time

A woman charged with selling fraudulent disabled-parking permit paperwork has avoided a long jail sentence for a handful of felonies by entering into a deferred prosecution agreement.

Nicole Cardona, 28, was arrested in gym clothes outside an L.A. Fitness club in Miami-Dade County in 2022 by the Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) and Miami Beach Police Department on a warrant for fraud and forgery. Camera crews from local stations were rolling as Cardona was perp-walked into the backseat of a patrol car.

Prosecutors charged her with an organized scheme to defraud, criminal use of a public record, forgery, and false official statements. She was accused of scheming to sell documents with forged doctors' signatures, which her customers would use to apply for and obtain disabled parking placards.

"Miami Beach Police and Miami Beach government officials have been inundated with resident complaints [that] reference drivers abusing disabled placards to park in permitted residential neighborhoods for unlimited lengths of time," Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Rundle's office said in a news release following Cardona's arrest.

While the court proceedings were pending in January, Valeria Mejia, Miami Beach's Americans with Disabilities Act coordinator, said she believed prosecutors would be seeking jail time for Cardona.

"The Miami Beach Police Department reached out to me today to search for people in the ADA community who would be willing to show up to the Miami-Dade County Courthouse tomorrow morning in support of the prosecution of the case of the woman that was arrested for selling fake disabled parking placards," Mejia said in an email to local disability-support groups. "The prosecution is looking for jail time and for this, attendance of support groups is essential."

After a January plea bargain hearing, Cardona switched her lawyer to veteran criminal defense attorney David Macey.

On July 3, all charges against Cardona were quietly dropped contingent upon Cardona completing a pretrial diversion program. Macey did not return phone or email messages by New Times seeking comment about the outcome of the case.

State attorney's office spokesperson Ed Griffith tells New Times in an email that once an individual charged with a non-violent crime, and having no prior convictions, enters pre-trial diversion within the local advocate program and successfully completes the program's requirements, charges are dropped.

If the defendant fails to successfully complete the program, the charges then go forward in criminal court, Griffith adds.

Meanwhile, Florida Highway Patrol Lieutenant Jim Beauford says that Cardona was the sole target of FHP's arrest operation. "I am not aware of any additional arrests by our department on this case," Beauford tells New Times.

Key witnesses in the case included two medical doctors who alleged during police interviews that their signatures had been forged.

Tony Abbassi, who practices internal medicine, told a detective that a full diagnosis and/or CT scan to establish a disability is required for him to sign off on a disabled-parking permit application.

New Times reached out to Abbassi for comment but has not received a response.

Cardona was busted in a two-year, multi-agency sting operation that included Florida Highway Patrol, Miami Beach and Miami-Dade police. Undercover officers set up purchases of two bogus placard applications for a total of $400 from Cardona, according to police.

One "controlled buy" of a placard application took place in 2021 in the parking lot of a Kendall McDonald's, police said. Investigators carried out a second purchase in 2022 in the same lot.

Selling fraudulent disabled-parking placards is big business in the Sunshine State.

In August 2023, state law enforcement announced the arrest of seven people in connection with the sale of 700 fraudulent placards. A retired pediatrician who was listed on the permit applications told investigators he had no idea his name was being used to obtain the permits. FHP's Bureau of Criminal Investigations and Intelligence discovered ads in which the group allegedly marketed the parking passes to those who were "tired of parking in the back."