Healthy Debate: Should This Miami Man Be Charged with "Organized Scheme to Defraud" Roman's Pizzeria with His Knockoff Pizza Joint?

NBC Miami - A man was arrested in an elaborate scheme to defraud tourists in Miami Springs by misleading them into believing his pizza was from a well-known local favorite pizzeria, police said.

Jose Marti-Alvarez faces charges of organized scheme to defraud for allegedly distributing fake flyers to hotel rooms along Northwest 36th Street that advertised his business Roman Cuisine Pizzeria, misleading customers into believing they were buying from Roman's Pizzeria, according to Miami Springs Police.

Slow news day today guys. But luckily for you, the reader, we have some riveting Miami Springs local pizzeria drama that must be covered. 

The restaurant in question, the protagonist of this story, is Roman's Pizzeria in Miami Springs. Owned by Jesus Roman. Once reviewed by Dave Portnoy. Hence the Dave Portnoy clickbait thumbnail. 

The villain is a man named Jose Marti-Alvarez, owner and operator of restaurant/scam Roman Cuisine Pizzeria.

After an extensive amount of research. Three articles read and one news segment watched. I've concluded that Mr. Senor Jose Marti-Alvarez is a shady guy. I think he's most likely a bad guy. I think he knew exactly what he was doing when he distributed his pizza flyers to those hotels, and he deserves to be punished. Especially considering when he was asked about the flyers by hotel staff, he instantly fled the scene, striking a staffer with his vehicle on his way out of the parking lot. If your instinct is to run away when someone asks you about your pizza business, then your pizza business probably isn't 100% above board. 

But when you look at the details of what happened. If we're talking strictly about the "organized scheme to defraud" charge (he's definitely guilty of aggravated battery). I have to think that any halfway decent lawyer is going to be able to get Jose off here.

Just look at the facts:

Jose is being charged with "organized scheme to defraud" for distributing flyers to a hotel and allegedly posing as a popular local pizza spot.

The popular pizza spot in Miami Springs is called Roman's Pizzeria (real flyer pictured below).

Jose distributed his menu flyers to hotels under the name Roman Cuisine Pizzeria (Jose's flyer pictured below).

The flyers are hardly similar. The names Roman's Pizzeria & Roman Cuisine Pizzeria are similar in the sense that they use the word "Roman". But let's be honest. "Roman" is hardly a unique word in the pizza scene. There must be thousands of Roman Pizzas across the United States. And if you look at the flyers, one flyer is clearly named after a man named Roman, whereas the other flyer is clearly referencing the city of Rome. "Roman style pizza" is a thing in it's own right. They're pretty clearly 2 different places.

On top of that, the phone numbers are obviously different. It's not like Jose paid for a phone number a couple digits off the real Roman's Pizzeria. And there is no address on the fake flyer implying it's at the same, or at a similar location as the real Roman's.

Now to be fair, here is what the outside of Roman's Pizzeria (the real one) looks like. 

The fake red, white, and green flyer looks nothing like Roman Pizzeria's yellow flyer, but it does have similar vibes as the storefront. Note both logos have mustaches.

What we have here is a classic Scranton, PA, Alfredo's Pizza Cafe vs Pizza by Alfredo situation. 

Nobody blamed Pizza by Alfredo when Michael Scott ordered their shitty pies instead of ordering Alfredo's Pizza Cafe. Because if Michael Scott had spent even 10 seconds to research things, he would have easily been able to determine which pizza place is the right one to order from. Much like Michael Scott, the people who ordered from Roman Cuisine Pizzeria were idiots. Imagine ordering from a brand new pizza restaurant without first checking it's One Bite Pizza Review score. 

 7.4 

I'm not defending what Jose did. The real Roman had to deal with a lot of bullshit as a result of Jose's "Roman Cuisine Pizzeria" delivery service. He didn't deserve that. 

The real owner of Roman’s Pizzeria, Jesus Roman, said he’s been dealing with the alleged knock-off for years when customers he never even served started complaining.

"That's how we found out that all these things were going on," Roman said. "Sometimes they call on the phone or sometimes they show up here very upset."

Marti-Alvarez allegedly delivered food that was undercooked, incorrect or fraudulently priced. Police said the scheme went on for several years and affected the actual Roman's Pizzeria, leading to negative online reviews and complaints to the Better Business Bureau.

There's also a part I may be missing from the story. When you now Google, "Roman's Pizza Miami Springs", you'll only get results for the legitimate restaurant. But I'm not sure what it was like a year ago. Perhaps there was some online, search engine, SEO trickery going on behind the scenes as well (although my gut tells me Jose isn't well versed in SEO).

I don't even think Jose is Roman. I bet he's never even been to Rome. I also wonder if posing as Roman's Pizzeria was even necessary for Jose's shitty pizza grift. I'm sure a lot of his orders came from hotel guests who ordered from him strictly because Roman Cuisine Pizzeria just so happened to be the flyer they came across first when checking into the hotel. He probably could have named it anything and still gotten orders. Because you'd think anybody who actually knew about Roman's Pizzeria, which I would assume most people staying at hotels in Miami Springs don't, then they'd probably look it up online. Or they'd think back to that scene from The Office and think, "Wait, Roman Cuisine Pizzeria doesn't quite sounds right, I better double check this. I would hate to get Pizza by Alfredo-ed."

I'm not defending Jose's actions. Him being convicted of this crime would be justice served. I just don't know if what he did is actually illegal. I don't know shit about the law, but I have a feeling a good lawyer could get him out of this with ease (not so sure about a state appointed lawyer though). There's nowhere I see where he actually claims to be the other restaurant. Serving dog shit pizza, and using the word Roman in the name of your business is not a crime in itself. 

Always double check the name of the restaurant you're ordering from. It's not that hard. I'm sure there are tons of other shitty people running knockoff restaurants around the country doing the exact same thing as Jose did in Miami Springs.