Crash involving Miami commissioner and police driver leads to call to city attorney
A Jan. 5 car crash involving a vehicle driven by a Miami police officer chauffeuring a city commissioner prompted another commissioner to stop by and reportedly led to a phone call from police to Miami’s city attorney about how to handle the collision.
The incident, which occurred late in the evening near the intersection of Southwest Seventh Street and Beacon Boulevard, near Miami-Dade College’s Eduardo J. Padrón Campus, damaged a city SUV carrying Commissioner Alex Díaz de la Portilla and, he says, an aide.
Díaz de la Portilla was being chauffeured at the time by a police officer, known as a sergeant-at-arms, an option afforded to all Miami’s elected officials.
On Thursday, the commissioner told the Miami Herald he was on the way home from a wake for Caridad Hernandez, the mother of former Miami commissioner and friend Humberto Hernandez, when the crash occurred. Díaz de la Portilla said he was in the vehicle with an aide, Vanessa Garcia Azzam, and that no one was seriously hurt in the collision.
The commissioner, who appeared to be unscathed, said he was surprised a reporter would be asking about a “minor car accident.”
“It’s a car accident for Christ’s sake,” he said.
But the crash was apparently notable enough to draw Miami Commissioner Joe Carollo to the scene and generate a phone call to City Attorney Victoria Méndez — and has now become the subject of an anonymous website and text messages alleging that Díaz de la Portilla tried to keep his name out of the police report documenting the incident.
“I did not. That never happened,” Díaz de la Portilla said Thursday.
Miami Police Chief Manny Morales declined to comment.
State law gives police up to 10 days to file the long form of the Florida Traffic Crash Report, which would provide details on the crash and all parties involved. Police have not released the report as of Thursday, and the city’s risk management department has not received other paperwork required when a city vehicle is involved in a collision. One of the required documents is the official crash report.
In an interview Tuesday, Carollo said he attended the visitation for Hernandez, where he saw Díaz de la Portilla and two staffers from his office. After leaving, Carollo said he and the police officer who was driving him went to Versailles for dinner. Toward the end of dinner, Carollo’s driver was informed on his radio that another sergeant-at-arms had been involved in a crash while driving Díaz de la Portilla.
While the officer was driving Carollo home, the commissioner said, they saw the scene of the accident, and Carollo asked the officer to pull over so he could check on his colleague.
“It was a bad crash,” Carollo told the Herald, saying he saw that a wheel had popped off the city SUV. “It was obvious the other vehicle had run a red light.”
Carollo, whose relationship with Díaz de la Portilla has run hot and cold in recent years, said he remained inside his car, rolled down the window and asked another officer about Díaz de la Portilla’s condition. Carollo said the cop told him Díaz de la Portilla had bumped his knee.
Carollo said the officer, another sergeant-at-arms who’d arrived at the scene, also told Carollo that Díaz de la Portilla had asked if his name needed to be in the report. Carollo emphasized to the Herald that Díaz de la Portilla asked a question, and that he did not make any demands, according to what he was told.
“Someone’s trying to create a real big lie,” Carollo said.
After some discussion with the officer, Carollo said he suggested that if there was any confusion as to how to file the report, the officer ought to call Méndez, the city attorney. The officer, Carollo said, commented that Méndez never answers his calls.
“I said, ‘Well, I can fix that for you,’” Carollo later told the Herald. He said he called Méndez, who clarified the law on the filing of the report. Carollo said he left after that.
On Thursday, Méndez declined to comment to the Herald for this story. On Wednesday, the blog Political Cortadito quoted Méndez saying that she was contacted following the crash and explained to police officers “how to properly document an accident.”
At Miami City Hall Thursday, Díaz de la Portilla said the incident was “not newsworthy.” When asked why anonymous claims are being flung at him, he had a short answer.
“Obviously,” he said, “I’m a politician.”
This story was originally published January 13, 2022 at 5:43 PM.
