Before steakhouse slap, police say U.S. Rep’s son slung a slur at Miami commissioner
The U.S. congressman’s son arrested for striking a Miami commissioner at a popular Coral Gables steakhouse Wednesday afternoon, also tossed an insulting slur before striking him, a police officer who witnessed the incident said on the arrest form.
“Hey p**sy, do you remember me?” the officer reported Carlos J. Gimenez as saying just before hitting Miami Commissioner Alex Diaz de la Portilla with an open hand on the side of the head.
Gimenez, 44, was charged with one misdemeanor count of battery. Miami-Dade Corrections records showed he had been released by 11 a.m. Thursday. His bond had been set at $1,500. Gimenez has hired attorney Michael R. Band, who declined to comment on Thursday.
According to Gimenez’s arrest report, when the Miami police officer who was with Diaz de la Portilla identified himself and asked Gimenez who he was, the government affairs lobbyist and son of U.S. Rep. Carlos Gimenez, responded, “You’re a city of Miami police officer, you don’t have any jurisdiction here.”
The officer, who is not named in the arrest form, is Detective Stanley Paul Noel. He is a member of the Miami Police Department’s Special Investigations Section and a dignitary protection officer. The Herald originally reported he was a Sergeant-At-Arms because the arrest form listed him as one.
Noel, according to the arrest form, held onto Gimenez by the coat and asked him to calm down until Coral Gables police arrived. He said Gimenez tried to “get away from me.”
In his first appearance since the steakhouse slap, Díaz de la Portilla refused to speak to reporters during breaks from Thursday’s daylong commission meeting. He stayed in his office, only sending out an aide to distribute copies of the arrest form most reporters had already seen. He didn’t address the incident from the dais.
Later Thursday the commissioner released a prepared statement saying he was refraining from directly addressing the incident because “This is a criminal investigation of Mr. Gimenez and his actions and I don’t want to jeopardize the prosecutor’s case in any way.”
Diaz de la Portilla did, however, repeat something he said Wednesday after the confrontation, again referring to Gimenez as a “coward” and explaining how he “approached me from behind and gave me a backhand as he ran away.”
His only other public comments were a tweet in English and a statement provided to Spanish-language media. The translation of his Spanish statement: “As is the custom of this individual, he tried in a cowardly manner to provoke me, and like a little girl, he brushed my hair with his fingernails. Men do it from the front, and not from behind.”
One of Díaz de la Portilla’s lunch buddies confirmed his attendance. Carlos Lago, a land use lawyer for Greenberg Traurig and brother of Coral Gables Mayor Vince Lago, confirmed through a spokesperson that he was there, but he declined to answer questions, including who else was present at the lunch and what was said during the scuffle. Vince Lago did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Also at lunch with the commissioner was former Miami Commissioner Humberto Hernandez. Asked about the incident, Hernandez referred to the police report.
“I can tell you that I have read the arrest affidavit... and the description therein is exactly what happened,” he responded by text.
Police said the incident was captured on a city surveillance camera near the steakhouse but have not released any video. Coral Gables Police, who responded to 911 calls from the restaurant, do not wear body cameras. It’s unknown if Noel was wearing one. Coral Gables police also interviewed other witnesses at the scene, the report says.
The arrest is unusual in one aspect: Both Miami and Coral Gables police offered a narrative in the Gimenez arrest form. And Noel, a Miami officer in Coral Gables, was listed as the arresting officer on the form.
Coral Gables Police spokeswoman Kelly Denham said Noel was able to arrest Gimenez in Coral Gables because the two neighboring cities have a mutual aid agreement. The agreement, signed in 2018, says aid can be rendered across city boundaries for felonies and misdemeanors and a host of other reasons, like searches.
“He’s the arresting officer because he witnessed the event and because of the mutual aide agreement,” Denham said.
This story was originally published February 10, 2022 at 9:38 AM with the headline "Before steakhouse slap, police say U.S. Rep’s son slung a slur at Miami commissioner."
