MANNY GARCIA Herald Staff Writer

On Tuesday, a contrite Cesar Odio stood before one of South Florida's toughest judges and apologized for trying to derail an FBI investigation into corruption at City Hall.
``Judge, I stand here before you. I knew what I was doing and I will pay for it,'' Odio told Judge K. Michael Moore. He pleaded guilty to felony obstruction and was sentenced to a year in prison.

On Thursday morning, Odio spun a different story on the Spanish-language radio show En Caliente .

``I was not caught committing a crime,'' Odio told the hosts, Armando Perez Roura and Juan Amador Rodriguez, during the morning broadcast.

By Thursday night, Odio was apologizing again -- saying he had misspoken earlier in the day when he portrayed himself as innocent of criminality.

``This morning, I used an example that was not true,'' he said on radio station WWFE-670 AM during a radio program hosted by Carlos d'Mant.

Odio's lawyers and others associated with the case said they were surprised by his comments on the early morning radio program.

During the interview, Odio made a point of noting that he hadn't cooperated with the government's Operation Greenpalm probe. He said prosecutors asked him at one point to wear a body bug and help them go after corruption in City Hall.

``I did not want to be an informant,'' Odio told his radio listeners. He said if he caught a politician committing a crime, he would turn him or her in. But he wouldn't go out and ``create'' a crime.

He said he pleaded guilty because he was broke. He said attorneys Don Bierman and Ed Shohat would have cost nearly $500,000, a figure Bierman later called ``greatly exaggerated.''

``The bill from the lawyers to start was $300,000 and if the trial proceeded $200,000 more,'' Odio said. ``People have told me `If you wanted to fight in the court, why did you accept the obstruction?' Because I was already ruined. We could not continue. I would have left my family without anything.''

He said the obstruction case against him stemmed from his attempts to prevent government informant Manohar Surana from entrapping Miami Commissioner Miller Dawkins and City Hall lobbyist Jorge de Cardenas.

Surana, the city's onetime finance director, eventually caught all three men on tape discussing kickbacks, according to U.S. prosecutors. Dawkins is in prison; de Cardenas awaits trial.

``I told Surana `You can't do this. How can you do this to your friends. How can you destroy the lives of people who have trusted in you during 20 years. What is wrong with you?' '' Odio said.

Odio invited journalists to a late-night radio appearance, apparently to clarify things. He said he oversimplified things earlier. Asked of his comment that he did not commit a crime, Odio said:

``If I said I was not committing a crime then I was wrong. I pleaded guilty to obstruction.''

Odio offered another explanation. He said the government dropped charges of mail fraud and theft related to bribery. That is what he meant by ``not committing a crime.''

According to last year's grand jury indictment, Surana taped Odio and de Cardenas conspiring to have de Cardenas collect $12,500 a month from a worker's compensation contract. He and Odio would each keep $5,000 a month and pay Surana $2,500 a month.

At one point during the investigation, Odio is captured on tape counting out $3,000 cash. He declined to discuss that portion of the tape Thursday.

``I don't want to shoot myself,'' he said. ``I'm just not going to discuss it.''

Instead, Odio noted that he successfully passed two polygraph exams indicating that he never accepted money.

WHAT ODIO SAID IN PLEA AGREEMENT

When Cesar Odio pleaded guilty to obstructing justice, he signed a sworn statement agreeing to these facts: * About March 1996, the FBI commenced an undercover investigation into the alleged unlawful diversion of city of Miami funds to defendant Jorge DeCardenas and others. . . . The FBI had information that no legitimate work was performed for the city of Miami by DeCardenas as of March 1996 although he had received $3,500 per month for at least 18 months.

* Assistant City Manager Manohar Surana, acting under the direction of the FBI, surreptitiously tape-recorded DeCardenas, Cesar Odio and others. In some of these conversations, DeCardenas and Odio discussed with Surana the award of consulting fees to DeCardenas relating to CIGNA Insurance Cos.' acquisition of this contract, and concomitant financial remunerations which would flow to DeCardenas and Odio.

* On or about Aug. 26, 1996, DeCardenas . . . executed a waiver of rights that provided, among other things, that he would cooperate with (the government).

* On Aug. 27, 1996, at approximately 10:40 a.m., a woman who would not identify herself called Odio's phone that was in his office, at City Hall, spoke to a secretary and stated that she was a friend of Odio and that Cesar should not accept anything from Jorge DeCardenas. Odio immediately called DeCardenas to discuss the phone call. . . . Afterward, Odio called Surana.

* Within a few minutes, at the direction of the FBI, DeCardenas called Odio and invited him to come to his house. Odio went to DeCardenas' residence. . . . DeCardenas offered Odio an unspecified sum of cash, stating that Surana had called and said that Odio needed money. Odio denied having asked for money.

* After Odio left the DeCardenas residence, he telephoned DeCardenas. In direct violation of the FBI's instructions to DeCardenas, and without the FBI's agents' knowledge, DeCardenas asked where Odio was and agreed to meet with him.

* Odio and DeCardenas met in the street outside of 225 Alhambra Cir. Odio subsequently advised [his chief of staff] Christina Cuervo, who had been waiting nearby in her car during Odio's conversation with DeCardenas, that DeCardenas had stated that Surana was cooperating with the investigation of Odio . . . that Odio should not call him again and that DeCardenas had gotten his wife, Maria, to call Odio that morning.

* Within approximately 15 minutes, Odio called Surana and directed him to meet at 225 Alhambra Cir. Surana arrived and . . . for approximately 30 minutes, Odio, communicating in writing and verbally, lied to Surana about his relationship with DeCardenas and his involvement in a CIGNA's kickback scheme. Odio asked Surana if he was wearing a recording device or was otherwise cooperating with law enforcement agents, advised him that DeCardenas had stated that Surana was cooperating and said that DeCardenas told Odio that he had his wife, Maria, call him and tell him that he was going to be taped in his house that morning.

* Surana denied being involved as a cooperator in an FBI investigation. Thereupon, Odio told Surana . . . to falsely deny that Odio and Surana had ever agreed to receive any money from anyone.

Odio also told Surana to falsely deny that he and Surana had ever directed that DeCardenas be hired as a consultant to CIGNA and that DeCardenas was to divide the payments with Odio and Surana.

Odio told Surana to go to Surana's office to make telephone calls to CIGNA representatives and tell them that there was a misunderstanding . . . and that the contract hiring DeCardenas as a consultant to the city of Miami on the CIGNA workers' compensation health benefits should be canceled.