Lawsuit challenging Rosen Gonzalez sexual harassment claim settled for $110,000
A defamation lawsuit filed against former Miami Beach Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez, who accused a former political ally of exposing himself to her in 2017, has been settled by Rosen Gonzalez’s insurance carrier.
Rafael Velasquez, an appointed member of Miami Beach’s Police/Citizens Relations Committee, received $110,000 from the insurance carrier to drop the lawsuit, according to a September order filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court.
Velasquez, a real estate agent, filed the lawsuit in 2018 challenging the accusation that he exposed himself to the then-sitting commissioner in a car while Velasquez was running for office. He claimed Rosen Gonzalez — at the time running an ill-fated campaign in the Democratic primary for Florida’s 27th congressional district — invented the accusation in order to capitalize on the national #MeToo movement against sexual harassment and abuse.
Rosen Gonzalez is currently running in Miami Beach’s Nov. 2 elections to regain her seat on the City Commission.
After Rosen Gonzalez came forward with her allegation, two other women accused Velasquez of sexual harassment and groping.
Velasquez apologized for making “inappropriate comments” to the two other accusers, but was adamant that Rosen Gonzalez was lying. At one point, claiming she’d filed a false police report, he allowed investigators to record a conversation with Rosen Gonzalez’s political consultant. Prosecutors declined to press charges.
Velasquez, who said he was out of the country and “not available for any interviews until after the November elections,” wrote in a text message that he “cannot discuss anything relating to the settlement.”
Rosen Gonzalez told the Miami Herald that the settlement was finalized without her consent. She shared a September 2020 email exchange in which an attorney for the insurance company informed Rosen Gonzalez’s attorney, Kent Harrison Robbins, that the company would move forward with the settlement.
“This is why Bill Cosby and [Jeffrey] Epstein and Harvey Weinstein were able to get away with what they did for so long,” Rosen Gonzalez said in an interview Monday.
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The settlement was first reported by Miami New Times.
In the email chain from last year, Harrison Robbins told the attorney representing the insurer that Rosen Gonzalez “intends to sue you personally and your carrier for acting in bad faith and contrary to her interests.”
Rosen Gonzalez has yet to file any lawsuit challenging the settlement.
She and Velasquez both ran for Miami Beach’s City Commission Group 4 seat in 2019. They both lost.
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