SUNNY ISLES BEACH, Fla. — A man arrested after allegedly ripping up ballots during a condominium board election in Sunny Isles Beach last week says he believed the vote was illegal and was trying to do the right thing.
Jacob Gold, 52, spoke with Local 10 News a day after his arrest in connection with a disrupted condo association election at the St. Tropez condominium building, located at 150 Sunny Isles Blvd.
Video from the Dec. 10 meeting shows Gold grabbing ballots from a box and tearing them up, forcing the election to be invalidated.
Jail records show Gold was arrested Tuesday and booked into the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on a misdemeanor charge of interfering with an election.
“I did not know that it would come to this, clearly, or I wouldn’t have done it for my life,” Gold said. “You see wrong, you do something.”
Gold told Local 10’s Rosh Lowe that he had never been in trouble with the law before and did not expect to spend a night in jail. He said he acted because the election did not comply with the building’s bylaws.
“The bylaws require 60-day notice by email,” Gold said. “They didn’t provide it. The notice must be given by the president or the secretary. It was given by neither.”
Gold also claimed the condo board president had canceled the election and that notices about the meeting were later removed.
According to an arrest report, witnesses told police that “Gold is a friend of the current board president,” who residents feared would be voted out during the election.
Police said Gold entered a room filled with residents and reached into the ballot box, taking several votes that had already been cast.
Residents of the St. Tropez building have said tensions with the condo board have been ongoing for years. Some said they were initially blocked from entering the annual meeting before being allowed inside.
“You don’t live in a condo expecting to have this happen, that your election is going to be hijacked,” resident Lyle Brous said. “I don’t understand why somebody wants to fight so hard to have an unpaid, unliked situation, to sit on a board where not everyone is going to be happy with you at any time.”
Gold defended his actions, saying he believed the board election process was being manipulated.
“They try to make the board like a desperate housewives club where they’re the puppeteers,” he said. “They create drama between people and bring in vendors and say sign at the end.”
Gold is scheduled to face a judge on the charge.
Meanwhile, the condominium association plans to hold a new election in the coming weeks. Residents said they are hopeful it will proceed without disruption.
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