One man arrested after dispute with police outside Hialeah council candidate’s party

Steps away from the Hialeah early voting site, Hialeah police arrested a man who was hosting an election party with paella for a council candidate.

Andres Diaz Banos, 49, was arrested at 4 p.m. Saturday in front of his home on West Second Avenue in Hialeah, according to an arrest affidavit the Miami Herald obtained from Diaz Banos. He was charged with battery on an officer, resisting an officer without violence and disorderly conduct.

This is the second arrest related to a local election to fill four Hialeah City Council seats. Last month, council candidate Milagros “Milly” Herrera was arrested by Hialeah Police and booked on misdemeanor charges of trespassing and resisting an officer without violence when she was distributing her fliers at in front of a senior apartment complex owned by the city of Hialeah, across from City Hall.

Pacheco and Herrera said they believe the police responses are politically motivated. Pacheco took it a step further and said she believes that Mayor Carlos Hernández is behind the responses.

“I thought they took the same retaliation that they did with me,” Herrera said.

“The mayor is trying to send a message that if you mess with his campaign, you’ll pay,” Pacheco said in Spanish.

Hialeah Police and Hernández did not respond to requests for comment.

Diaz Banos was hosting an election party for Hialeah City Council candidate Angelica Pacheco in front of his home, which is across from the John F. Kennedy Library on West 49th Street, when Hialeah Police arrested him.

Several vehicles, including his own and his guests, were parked on his property. One car was also given a $253 ticket for parking in a disabled space, even though it was parked in front of Diaz Banos’ driveway. Early voting had already ended at the time of his arrest.

“They arrested a person that had nothing to do with my campaign,” Pacheco said.

Pacheco said that an election official came out from the library and told her that she couldn’t campaign with 150 feet of the entrance to the voting site, despite her being on private property.

The police were called and an officer told Pacheco she couldn’t have a campaign car within 150 feet of the entrance, even though she said the cars didn’t belong to her or the campaign staff and were not decorated with campaign materials.

An officer was conducting traffic enforcement at Diaz Banos’ home after various complaints, according to the arrest affidavit. He asked Diaz Banos’ son to move a parked white BMW to a different location after he said that the car was improperly parked.

Diaz Banos told the Miami Herald that police were called because the BMW was parked on the sidewalk, but he said it was parked on his driveway.

Diaz Banos approached the officer and said that his son would not move the car, according to the arrest affidavit. It additionally states that Diaz Banos slammed his hand on the hood of the car and yelled at his son in Spanish not to move it and then aggressively walked up to the officer.

The officer said Diaz Banos kept approaching him even after he told Diaz Banos to stay back, according to the arrest affidavit. The affidavit states that Diaz Banos reached out and grabbed the officer’s right arm and pushed it away.

A video from the incident showed Diaz Banos and an officer arguing about the car after it was moved up. His wife, Mercedes Heredia, then pulled Diaz Banos’ arm back when the officer and Diaz Banos got closer to each other. Another officer that was talking to Pacheco then approached Diaz Banos from behind and touched his arm, where he was already standing with his hands behind his back when speaking to the officer. He was then arrested and walked off without resistance. Various videos did not show Diaz Banos grab the officer, but that could’ve been because of the angle and focus.

People shouted: “That’s not fair,” and “Communists.”

When Heredia went to go ask the officers why Diaz Banos was arrested, the video shows her get pushed after the officer told her to get off the street. People pointed at the officer and yelled to not push her and alleged police abuse. The video also shows a vehicle with signs for candidates supported by Hernández: Lourdes Lozano, Luis Gonzalez, Oscar De La Rosa and Jaqueline Garcia-Roves driving around the polling location during the confrontation with police.

Suzy Trutie, the deputy supervisor at the Miami-Dade County Supervisor of Elections, said the department is responsible only for enforcing rules within 150 feet of polling place. She said everything is the responsibility of the municipality.

“We enforce the rules,” Trutie said. “We’re not the police department. We can only control what happens within the polling place.”

Trutie said that the department follows Florida statutes, which states that no person, political committee or other group or organization can solicit voters inside the polling place or within 150 feet of the entrance.

A document given to the candidates regarding voter solicitation said that cars and trucks decorated with campaign materials could not be parked within 150 feet of the precinct entrance. A Miami Herald reporter later witnessed decorated cars with signs from Lozano, Gonzalez, De La Rosa and Garcia-Roves driving on the streets around the early voting site, but they did not park.

“I don’t drive that vehicle nor is it under my supervision,” De La Rosa, who is Miami-Dade County Commissioner Esteban Bovo’s stepson, said. “The driver is not under my control. I didn’t make the request, but I would be more than willing to ask.”

De La Rosa said that the Miami Herald’s call about the arrest was the first he had heard of the incident.

Diaz Banos was taken to the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center after the initial arrest. He said he was never read his rights.

“I thought the worst,” he said in Spanish.

Mónica Pérez, another city council candidate, said she didn’t think the situation should have escalated the way that it did.

“Do I think that was the right protocol?” she asked. “No. But at the end of the day, you have to respect the law.”

Diaz Banos was released early Sunday morning on a $6,500 bond that Pacheco’s husband paid for.

Still, even after the arrest, Diaz Banos was back hosting Pacheco’s election party. This time with a sign above a bounce house: “Aqui no hay miedo,” or “Here there’s no fear.”

This story was originally published November 3, 2019 at 9:10 PM.