Running for mayor, Otaola hit with stalking injunction over alleged YouTube threats

A private investigator claims that public ridicule and intimidation from Miami-Dade mayoral candidate Alexander Otaola amounts to cyber stalking from the influential YouTube host with a loyal audience.

Joe Carrillo, 68, secured a restraining order earlier this month against Otaola, a conservative Cuban-American running a campaign that pledges to rid Miami-Dade County of communism. Carrillo said he became a target of Otaola’s on-camera scorn after serving him legal papers last year in a slander suit and that the newfound notoriety left him fearing for his safety.

“He’s dangerous,” Carrillo said in an interview this week after securing a court order under stalking laws. The order required Otaola to turn over four firearms to local police pending a full hearing in April.

“I’m not looking for money. I’m looking for this guy to leave me alone,” Carillo said.

Carillo has been a regular in front of news cameras from investigations during election seasons, including a press conference with 2022 county candidate Sophia Lacayo, who Carrillo said paid him to look into absentee-ballot issues. She was later arrested on charges alleging violations of campaign-finance law. In 2012, he was credited with exposing absentee-ballot irregularities in 2012 while working as a union investigator.

Otaola, 44, has already brushed off the restraining order as political shenanigans, telling viewers of his Spanish-language program “Hola Ota-Ola” that “this is the way they have been doing politics in Miami for years.”

Before dancing to a salsa jingle with the chorus “Votar por Donald Trump,” Otaola showed photos of Carrillo’s past television appearances. “This man is an instrument that they use to make these types of complaints,” Otaola said.

READ MORE: He’s a conservative Cuban-American YouTube star. Now he’s running for Miami-Dade mayor

In response to the Feb. 2 stalking complaint, an Otaola lawyer urged a judge to reject the case because Carrillo’s complaint centers solely around what a media personality told his audience.

“A reasonable person would not suffer substantial emotional distress from Mr. Otaola’s comments, as one could easily cease taking the conscious action of logging onto his computer and navigating to Mr. Otaola’s social media pages,” lawyer Valerie Hassan wrote in the Feb. 14 filing. “Any comments made by Mr. Otaola on his show were designed to educate his audience and the general public and inform them about his court case.”

Hassan declined to comment, citing the ongoing legal proceedings. Otaola’s campaign referred questions about the case to the candidate’s lawyers.

The dispute comes as Otaola tests the potential for his social media standing to translate into success at the ballot box, as well as the votes his conservative audience can deliver the Cuban-American influencer in 2024 against the county’s Democratic mayor, Daniella Levine Cava.

READ MORE: This YouTube star made his mark among recently arrived Cubans — and got them to act

A November poll released last month by Levine Cava’s political team showed Otaola polling 50 points behind the first-term mayor but virtually tied with the only elected Republican in the race, Manny Cid, the mayor of Miami Lakes. The EMC Research poll had Levine Cava as the pick by 66% of likely voters for the nonpartisan mayoral election in November, followed by Cid at 16% and Otaola at 15%.

Otaola is keeping close with Cid on fundraising, too, in part through segments on his program asking viewers to send him small contributions. His latest report lists more than 11,000 donors to his campaign, compared to 2,500 for Levine Cava and only 200 for Cid.

Levine Cava has raised about $4 million so far in campaign and PAC donations, compared to $306,000 for Cid and $224,000 for Otaola. The amount raised by Otaola includes $33,000 to a political committee launched last year to support his campaign with the name “Miami-Dade a Communist Free Zone.”

Documents released by Miami-Dade Circuit Court from Carrillo’s complaint do not detail the specific threats he’s alleging. In filing the complaint, Carrillo checked the box alleging Otaola “threatened to harm the petitioner or family members.”

Asked what he was accusing Otaola of doing, Carrillo pointed to a segment where Otaola had his lawyer and two of her colleagues on to discuss a courtroom encounter with Carrillo.

“Mr. Otaola looked straight into the camera after speaking about me and only me, saying, ‘Anybody that messes with us, we will run over,’” Carrillo said. “That’s a direct threat.”

The restraining order, granted by Miami-Dade Judge Linda Melendez in early February and extended through April 12 after a brief hearing, bars Otaola from contacting Carrillo or being within 100 feet of him.

It also imposes an order that Otaola, a firearms owner who lives in rural Miami-Dade outside Homestead, “shall not use or possess a firearm or ammunition.” The injunction required Otaola to turn in all firearms he owned pending resolution of the complaint.

On Feb. 9, Otaola turned in four guns to a Miami police station, according to a receipt form provided by Carrillo. The weapons included a Zastava rifle and a Glock handgun, according to the form.

Carrillo, who has a state license as a private investigator, said he was hired last May to serve a legal document on Otaola at his four-acre home in a farming area outside Homestead.

The papers stemmed from a 2023 slander suit Otaola is facing from another local media personality, political consultant Sasha Tirador, who claims Otaola falsely accused her of being tied to the Cuban government.

When delivering a cease-and-desist letter from Tirador’s legal team, Carrillo said he had an alarming encounter with an armed private security guard working there.

Carrillo said the guard surrounded his car with two other people while brandishing a gun, without wearing a uniform indicating he was a licensed security guard. Carrillo said that while the guard initially accepted the letter, things changed once Carrillo went to leave.

“I got in my car,” Carrillo said. “When I turned around, he was banging on my window — with two women — armed,” Carrillo said.

After that incident, Carrillo said Otaola publicly mocked him.

“Within hours, that same afternoon, Otaola began to refer to my person as disheveled and illegitimate on all his media platforms,” Carrillo wrote in the complaint. He said Otaola also falsely claimed Carrillo is working for Cuba.

“A very dangerous accusation to make of someone in this City,” Carrillo wrote.

This story was originally published February 23, 2024 at 1:39 PM.