Lubby Navarro spent lavishly on ex-boyfriend’s restaurant and him, investigators say
Lubby Navarro racked up thousands of dollars on her Miami-Dade Public Schools credit cards to stock her ex-boyfriend’s Fort Lauderdale restaurant, filling it with refrigerators, a wine cooler and top-of-the line espresso machines, part of her nearly $100,000 spending spree of taxpayers’ money, according to her 98-page arrest warrant.
She also took him and his family to Walt Disney World and took him to Las Vegas, where they stayed at the Wynn Las Vegas hotel, all charged to her two school district cards, the probable cause affidavit says.
Investigators with the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office and the Miami-Dade Office of Inspector General arrested Navarro, 49, Thursday on grand theft and fraud charges stemming from $92,000 worth of illegal purchases on her school district credit card and another $9,000 on her district-issued travel card. The charges spanned all of 2022, investigators say, when Navarro sat on the Miami-Dade School Board, part of that time as vice chair.
As of Friday evening, she was still being held at Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, according to online jail records. Her attorney, Benedict Kuehne, said a judge lowered her bond from $2 million to $100,000, and he expected her to be released. Kuehne issued a statement Thursday that Navarro is innocent of all charges.
Relationship with restaurateur
Navarro’s relationship with the Fort Lauderdale restaurant owner, Mor David, began in May 2021, when she stopped into his Stirling Road restaurant, Shook Market, which bills itself as a kosher juice bar serving smoothies, acai bowls and paninis.
They started out as friends, with Navarro, 49, a Miami-Dade School Board member and a lobbyist for a Broward hospital chain at the time, giving David her business card and offering her help in making his business more successful, according to the Jan. 10 State Attorney’s warrant.
In time, the relationship became intimate, David told investigators. He told them he never asked Navarro for money, but he did ask her for advice on how to save his struggling eatery.
David declined to speak with the Miami Herald when reached by phone Friday at his restaurant.
Soon after, Navarro, was buying supplies for Shook Market — refrigerators, blenders, coffee makers, chest freezers, a wine chiller and fake grass — according to the warrant.
David told investigators that most of the time, Navarro would show up with the items, but sometimes she would take him shopping, always using a credit card. Investigators say in the warrant that almost all of the items they found at Shook Market were purchased on Navarro’s school district-issued credit card.
READ MORE: From refrigerators to 56 lemon pies — here’s what Lubby Navarro bought, investigators say
She also bought David a $900 Android cell phone, investigators say, bought him clothes, $200 and $300 gift cards and even offered to pay for a dentist to have his teeth fixed.
Spending increases
As Navarro’s and David’s relationship deepened, she spent more money on him — and, his family, the warrant states.
With his family flying in from out of town in July 2022, Navarro went to the supermarket and bought between $800 and $900 worth of groceries, according to the warrant. Investigators don’t say in the warrant how she paid for them, but she then rented David a car with her district-issued travel credit card for him to use while his family was in town through August 2022, the warrant states. The rental car bill? $1,034.
On Aug. 13, 2022, Navarro used her travel card to buy an outgoing flight to Orlando for $23 and a ticket for a flight back to Miami for $111, according to the warrant. The reason for the day trip was to buy tickets to Disney’s Magic Kingdom and Universal Studios Volcano Bay theme parks, investigators say.
The warrant does not say how Navarro paid for the theme park tickets, but investigators say she used her travel card to buy two hotel rooms for her, David and his family at the Doubletree Orlando Hotel for a total of $1,015.
The documents Navarro turned in to the district to reconcile the purchases were doctored, investigators say in the warrant.
READ MORE: 5 things to know about Lubby Navarro, the arrested ex-Miami-Dade School Board member
Las Vegas
After the Orlando trip was over, David told investigators Navarro flew him out to Las Vegas. She told David, according to the warrant, that he had to accompany her since she did so much for his family during their visit.
Using her travel card, Navarro bought two round-trip American Airlines tickets for $372 each, and upgraded both seats for $241 per ticket, the warrant states. The total cost of the flights was $1,228.
While in Vegas, they stayed at the Wynn Hotel from Aug. 25 through Aug. 28, 2022. Again, this was on the district’s dime. Investigators say Navarro used her district travel card to cover the $4,338 bill, which included drinks and meals at the hotel’s various restaurants and night clubs.
Relationship ends
The whirlwind romance between the couple began to sour a month later, he told investigators, because Navarro “became extremely possessive and she began to follow him and harass him via phone calls and Instagram messages,” the warrant states.
David ended the relationship, but Navarro’s behavior only became more erratic, he told investigators. She began sending Instagram messages to his mother that investigators describe as “harassing and menacing,” including one showing her with a pregnant belly, the warrant states.
At one point, Navarro showed up at Shook Market and waved to him from outside. David ran out of the restaurant to see if she was indeed pregnant, but, when he got to her car window, he saw no signs she was carrying a child, he told investigators.
“Navarro told him that she had taken pills and the baby had died,” investigators wrote in the warrant.
Investigators subpoenaed Navarro’s purchases from Amazon.com, which showed that on Nov. 2, 2022, she used her district credit card to buy two silicone pregnancy bellies with cotton lining. One is designed to look like a mother is two to four months pregnant, the other for a pregnancy further along, the warrant states.
Tracking his car
The harassment didn’t end there, according to investigators. David told them he began seeing Navarro “anywhere and everywhere, and knew where he was at all times.” She would park her car outside of Shook Market and remain there for hours, David told investigators.
“[David] also stated that Navarro told him she worked for the FBI and knew everything about him. [David] stated that Navarro sent him a picture of herself wearing an FBI baseball cap and a picture of her eyeball indicating that she was constantly watching him,” investigators wrote in the warrant.
Later, David said that every time he would get into his car, his iPhone would make a beeping sound.
“He became so concerned that he began to search his car for tracking devices,” investigators wrote.
He found them in the form of two Apple AirTags attached to the underside of his car in two locations, adhered with duct tape, investigators said.
“Subpoenaed documents from Walmart revealed Navarro made two purchases of Apple AirTags using her P-Card,” investigators wrote. “One pack of four AirTags were purchased on April 29, 2022, and the other pack of four was purchased on November, 25, 2022, both from Walmart.”
Navarro resigned from the School Board at the end of December 2022, the day before a new state law prohibiting elected officials from working as lobbyists went into effect. At the time, Navarro was a registered lobbyist for the South Broward Hospital District, which includes Memorial Healthcare System hospitals in Hollywood, Pembroke Pines, Miramar and Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital in Hollywood. She earned upwards of $220,000 in her lobbyist job in 2022.
Thursday night, after her arrest, the hospital district placed her on unpaid administrative leave.
