Source: Office of United States Attorneys
MIAMI – Miami-Dade Transit Track and Guideway Supervisor Dale Robinson, his wife Marcia Robinson, and Jessie Bledsoe, a contractor doing work for Miami-Dade Transit, pled guilty in related cases to Federal charges. Dale Robinson pled guilty to soliciting a bribe from Bledsoe in connection with the issuance of Metrorail repair and maintenance contracts. Marcia Robinson pled guilty to misprision of a felony for helping her husband cover up the bribery. Jessie Bledsoe pled guilty to paying a bribe to Dale Robinson in connection with his contracts with Miami-Dade Transit. Dale Robinson and Marcia Robinson entered their guilty pleas before U.S. Magistrate Judge Ellen F. D’Angelo and they were accepted by U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore, while Bledsoe entered his guilty plea in Miami last week before U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom.
According to the facts admitted at the change of plea hearings, Dale Robinson was the acting General Superintendent and lead Rail Structure and Track Supervisor in the Track and Guideway unit of Miami-Dade Transit. His responsibilities included making recommendations about contractors to be chosen to do Metrorail track maintenance and repair work for the transit unit and overseeing the work done by those contractors, including Bledsoe. Bledsoe was the co-owner and operator of JB Railroad Contracting, Inc. (JB Railroad), a North Dakota-based company that did railroad track and rail replacement, repair, and maintenance work throughout the United States, including on the Metrorail system.
In or around January 2021, while JB Railroad was working on a previously obtained contract for the removal and replacement of Metrorail track fasteners and was in the process of seeking an additional contract to do welding work on the Metrorail system for Miami-Dade Transit, Dale Robinson requested a large bribe from Bledsoe. Bledsoe agreed to pay Robinson that bribe, which was intended to influence Robinson’s selection of the contractor for the upcoming welding project. Bledsoe also agreed to concealing the payment by making it to a company specified by Dale Robinson.
After this, in late January 2021, Dale Robinson directed his wife, Marcia Robinson, who lived in Maryland, to create a company named Tailored Railroads & Consulting LLC and to open a company checking account on which she would serve as the sole signatory. Marcia Robinson did this, filing the company paperwork in the State of Maryland. Dale Robinson then provided the information about Tailored Railroads to Bledsoe so that Bledsoe could disguise the payments intended for Dale Robinson’s personal benefit by making them via checks from JB Railroad to Tailored Railroads.
After the bribe had been solicited by Dale Robinson, and after Tailored Railroads was created and the checking account opened by Marcia Robinson, during the period of February 2021 through February 2022, Dale Robinson directed Marcia Robinson to send a total of four invoices from Tailored Railroads to JB Railroad. When Marcia Robinson sent each of these invoices, she knew that Tailored Railroads had not provided goods or services of any type to JB Railroad.
Bledsoe then caused JB Railroad to issue checks to Tailored Railroads to pay these invoices, even though Tailored Railroads provided no goods or services to JB Railroad, because these actually were the payments of the bribe solicited by Dale Robinson. A total of four checks were issued from JB Railroad to Tailored Railroads during the period of February 2021 through March 2022 to pay these four invoices. These four checks totaled approximately $75,956, the amount that Bledsoe ultimately provided to Tailored Railroads for the personal benefit of Dale Robinson in response to Dale Robinson’s bribe solicitation.
While not knowing all the details of her husband’s illegal bribery agreement with Bledsoe, when the four checks were issued to Tailored Railroads, Marcia Robinson knew that the funds were being paid by Bledsoe for Dale Robinson’s personal benefit in connection with Dale Robinson’s recommendation of JB Railroad for work to be performed for Miami-Dade Transit. Despite this, she did not inform authorities of her husband’s crime, and her actions all helped to conceal his criminal activity. In addition, beyond issuing these four invoices and receiving the four payments from JB Railroad, Tailored Railroads engaged in no other activity of any type, and it eventually was administratively dissolved by the State of Maryland.
Dale Robinson and Marcia Robinson are scheduled for sentencing on July 10, 2025, at 2:00 p.m. before U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore in Miami. Dale Robinson faces a possible maximum sentence of up to 10 years in prison and Marcia Robinson faces a possible maximum sentence of up to three years in prison.
Jessie Bledsoe is scheduled for sentencing on August 1, 2025, at 10:30 a.m. before U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom in Miami. Bledsoe faces a possible maximum sentence of up to 10 years in prison
U.S. Attorney Hayden P. O’Byrne for the Southern District of Florida, acting Special Agent in Charge Brett Skiles of FBI Miami, and Inspector General Felix Jimenez of the Miami-Dade County Office of Inspector General (MDC-OIG) announced the guilty pleas.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Edward N. Stamm is prosecuting both cases and Assistant U.S. Attorney Marx Calderon is handling the forfeiture matters on both cases.
Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov, under case number 25-cr-20168.
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