Cheating Scandal Compels Hialeah, FL, Top Leaders to Retake Test

A cheating scandal involving a test for one of the highest positions in the Hialeah Fire Department has led to a personnel board decision requiring the candidates who passed the exam in August 2023 to retake it.

The decision came nearly a month after Fire Chief Willians Guerra’s resignation — just two days after the Miami Herald broke the news of the cheating scandal. A complaint made in October 2023 alleged that a candidate had been given an “unfair advantage” during a test for those seeking promotion to battalion chief or assistant chief of operations in the Fire Department.

District Fire Chief Robert Ortega, one of six candidates who took the test and one of the three who failed, filed a complaint with the Hialeah Police Department’s Professional Compliance Bureau. In his sworn statement, Ortega said that “a particular employee was given the answers to the oral exam in order to score exceptionally well.”

While Ortega did not name the candidate, he identified the person who scored a perfect 100 as the one believed to have received the “unfair advantage.” The only candidate who got a perfect score on the exam is Edward Altidor, chief of the department’s Professional Standards division.

The exam, which included both written and oral components, required a minimum score of 70 out of 100 to pass, making candidates eligible for promotion when vacancies arise.

Ortega told the Herald in October that “an unfair advantage was given to Altidor by someone else over the other candidates.” According to Ortega, division chiefs like Altidor have an unfair edge in promotions. “They have ‘palanca,’” he said, using the Spanish word for lever, a slang term for high-placed benefactors. Ortega mentioned at the time that the Fire Department’s leadership “created a Frankenstein test” that favored certain candidates, noting that 50% of the candidates failed.

Guerra told internal affairs investigators that the battalion chief exams were developed by Deputy Fire Chief Raymond Malin. Malin retired shortly after being interviewed about the cheating allegations and did not respond to the Herald’s request for comment.

In a statement issued by Altidor’s attorneys at the time, his lawyer, Naomi Levi Garcia, denied the accusations, saying that “he did not cheat, and he did not have an unfair advantage.”

In addition to Altidor, the other two candidates who passed the oral test were District Fire Chiefs Guillermo Barnet, who scored 90, and Justo Diaz de Arce, who scored 85. While Barnet and Diaz de Arce were not named in Ortega’s complaint, they, like Altidor, will be required to retake the exam following the personnel board’s unanimous decision on Monday night.

Both Barnet and Diaz de Arce submitted separate sworn statements to internal affairs, asserting that all candidates were given an equal opportunity to pass the exam and that neither witnessed any preferential treatment. Neither was available for comment Tuesday.

The three candidates will retake the oral portion of the exam in 2025. Those who failed the exam will not be permitted to retake it.

Before the board’s decision, the city firefighters’ union told the Herald that the chief needed to take disciplinary action, which could include firing staff members and removing candidates from the promotion list. However, no such actions were taken by Guerra or Interim Chief Humfredo “Freddy” Perez following Guerra’s resignation.

The internal affairs investigation uncovered that Division Chief Emmanuel Louis, another candidate who failed the test, had received a copy of a previous year’s oral exam. According to Hialeah’s Human Resources department, the copy was provided to Louis because he was the designated contact for the Fire Department regarding exams. Though the exam Louis received was not identical to the one used for the 2023 test, HR Director Elsa Jaramillo-Velez described it as “very similar.”

The investigation further revealed that Louis had forwarded the exam to Altidor prior to last year’s test.

After concluding the investigation on Aug. 27, Jaramillo-Vélez recommended to the personnel board — the only body authorized to certify or discard a promotion list — that the eligibility list from the 2023 exam be discarded.

Jaramillo-Vélez offered the board three options: discarding the eligibility list and redoing the oral exam, invalidating the entire exam, or maintaining the current eligibility list, which would allow candidates who passed the controversial exam to remain eligible for promotion when a vacancy arises.

One of Altidor’s attorneys, Alejandro Garcia, told the board that Altidor had received an “unsolicited copy of an old test” and should not be penalized for it.

“You cannot control what arrives in your inbox, mailbox or text messages,” Garcia said. “Receiving an unsolicited email should not derail an entire career. People are accusing Division Chief Altidor of cheating, but he has not defrauded anyone, has not violated any rules and has not acted dishonestly. Having knowledge of an old test with different questions does not constitute cheating.”

Before the vote, Garcia asked the board to consider the meeting a “quasi-judicial proceeding” and called Lt. James Brown as a witness.

Brown shared his own experience with the exam process and recounted his 2022 attempt at the lieutenant test, which he failed. When he attempted to challenge the exam, he was told challenges were not allowed. After retaking the test, Brown scored 100, but he said he was accused of cheating.

“I was ridiculed. I was shamed. My integrity was questioned,” Brown told the board. “Five of us passed the exam, four with high scores. But only the African American candidates were accused of cheating.”

Brown emphasized that it was common practice to discuss and share information about the test within the fire department.

“From EMT to chief, we all share information,” he said. “It’s disturbing that some candidates are given every opportunity to challenge a failed test, while others are told they cannot. If one person is denied the ability to challenge an exam, then we all need to be held to the same rule. We must first address the bias and ensure that everyone is treated fairly, regardless of race, color or religion.”

Since August, the board had delayed its decision, awaiting a recommendation from Guerra, who on Nov. 4, a day before resigning, sent a memo to Human Resources saying that “Chief Altidor and Chief Louis did not violate any department policy. No further action required.”

Jaramillo-Vélez clarified that Guerra’s memo was made without analyzing civil service rules or conducting a thorough review.

Partial resolution

Ortega’s complaint aimed to contest four questions from the oral portion of the exam, arguing that they did not align with the study material outlined in the Hialeah Fire Department Professional Standards Manual. That challenge, raised prior to the internal affairs complaint, was supported by the three candidates who failed the exam: Ortega, who scored 67; Louis, who scored 63; and District Fire Chief Vladimir Kanarev, who scored 62.

The personnel board’s decision partially addressed the complaint, resolving the allegation of cheating. However, the concerns raised by the three candidates who failed the test, specifically that the exam was not aligned with the study material, and consequently, that all candidates should retake it, was unresolved.

Ortega was absent from Monday’s personnel board meeting and later declined to comment for this story.

After the decision was made, the union issued a statement to the Herald, saying, “Since the questions of impropriety came to light, this solution rectifies the situation and [allows us to] move forward. The board’s decision was just and fair.”

Under an informal agreement between the personnel board with the fire union, the three candidates who passed the exam will study from the same materials used in the August 2023 test. They will have three months to prepare, starting Jan. 1, with the retake scheduled for the end of March 2025.

Candidates who pass the examination will be eligible to serve as a battalion chief, overseeing an entire shift of firefighters. A formal position will open if Hermogenes “Hermy” Lacayo, currently serving as interim deputy chief, remains in that role following the unexpected retirement of Malin, who stepped down shortly after being interviewed by internal affairs.

The three candidates who failed will have to wait at least until 2026 to be able to retake the test with any other candidate seeking that position.