6 November 30 - December 6, 2023 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com New Times | music | cafe | culture | Night+Day | news | letters | coNteNts | miaminewtimes.com MIAMI NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | FILM | ART | STAGE | NIGHT+DAY | METRO | RIPTIDE | LETTERS | CONTENTS | SAY CHEESE! Miami cop nicknamed “Uncle Fester” unlawfully detained a police-filming duo. BY NAOMI FEINSTEIN T he City of Miami police officer nicknamed “Un- cle Fester” violated de- partmental procedures when he stuffed two police-film- ing provocateurs in his patrol car for no justifiable reason and told them to “enjoy the manly and de- licious smells” emanating from the backseat, according to an in- ternal affairs report. “Officer Heredia Rubio requested identifi- cation from both men, became agitated when they did not provide it, exited his police vehi- cle, unlawfully detained and handcuffed both men, and placed them in the back seat of his marked police vehicle,” the Miami Police De- partment (MPD) investigation report reads. Rubio was also discourteous to the duo on multiple occasions, including when he asked them if they were “comiendo mierda” (Span- ish for eating feces) prior to the encounter, the report said. The incident, which was captured in a vi- ral video entitled “Unhinged Cop Goes Hands On and Demands ID,” began when self-de- scribed First Amendment auditors Rafael Go- mez and Joel Lopez approached Rubio’s vehicle as he sat in the middle of the road with his emergency lights engaged. “Rubio motioned by waving his hand for both men to come closer to his patrol vehicle and asked [them] in Spanish if they found him attractive,” the report continues. The officer then demanded to see their IDs after they told him he was blocking traf- fic. Lopez and Gomez laughed loudly in re- sponse and asked to speak with a supervisor. Immediately thereafter, the short and stocky officer with a glistening shaved head slapped handcuffs on the two men and placed them in the back of his cruiser. “During the handcuffing of Mr. Gomez, he can be heard complaining, ‘You’re breaking my arm,’” the report states. “Rubio placed Mr. Lopez in his police vehicle and ordered Mr. Gomez to sit on top of him.” Lopez and Gomez were released after spending nearly 40 minutes in the back of the police car during the November 2022 inci- dent. They asked the officer why they were detained, to which he responded, “Because I wanted to. Thank you. Goodbye.” Gomez then flipped off the officer and called him “Uncle Fester,” a nod to the barrel-shaped bald character from the Addams Family. Gomez, AKA Ragomonkey, and Lopez are no strangers to police throughout the Magic City. They are self-described First Amend- ment activists who record their interactions with police officers and local politicians to test the bounds of free speech. Many of Gomez’s videos that he posts on his popular YouTube channel document him flipping off police offi- cers and hurling insults at public meetings. In the encounter with Rubio, the officer told Gomez and Lopez to wait for his supervi- sor to arrive so he could receive his “pow, pow,” Spanish slang for a spanking, according to the report. When Lopez told the officer he broke Gomez’s phone during his detainment, Rubio imitated a crying baby and said, “Oh my god, I broke his phone. Oh my god.” A review of the bodycam footage from Ru- bio and officers who arrived later captured the officer telling Lopez his driver’s license photo was “sexy.” The Civilian Investigative Panel (CIP), an independent oversight panel for Miami po- lice, said the footage also showed that when one of the men complained they were being treated like animals in the backseat and ques- tioned if “that’s what we deserved,” Rubio re- sponded, “Correct.” “Sorry it’s tight like that. It’s not supposed to be a limo,” Rubio said, according to the CIP investigation. “Since you’re a good friend of Chief Morales, ask him to get us limos for the next contract.” As the two men complained that they were uncomfortable and hot in the car, Rubio said they should “enjoy the manly and deli- cious smells” emanating from the backseat, according to the two reports. He also told them to suck it up because their wrists were not his problem after they said their hand- cuffs were too tight. During his interview with the internal af- fairs investigator in June 2023, the report states that Rubio said he had detained Lopez and Gomez because they had obstructed him while he was working on a traffic investiga- tion. He contended he was outnumbered and feared he could be ambushed, so he detained them for his safety. “Officer Heredia Rubio noted the two men were filming him for no reason. They spoke to him using loud voices. They were belligerent, they refused to provide identification, [and] they disturbed him from what he was doing,” the investigator said. Rubio claimed it was not until the duo was in the back of his police car that he recog- nized Lopez and Gomez as “police agitators” from a previous video of the men and a City of Miami sergeant. The officer maintained that it alleviated his safety concerns but that he wanted to complete a “field interrogation form” before he released them. Rubio acknowledged he made several sar- castic and discourteous remarks during the encounter, but he said he was trying to build a rapport with the men. “Officer Heredia Rubio explained the men were trying to be ‘smart-asses’ and he was trying to be ‘just as much...a smart-ass back to them’ and that he was just ‘being the Flagami Cowboy’ and having fun with them,” the in- vestigator wrote. Internal affairs sustained the allegation of improper procedure against the officer for unlawfully detaining the two men and for not wearing his bodycam at the start of the inci- dent. The allegation of “discourtesy” was sus- tained for the officer’s behavior throughout the encounter. A Miami lieutenant, the supervising offi- cer who responded to the scene, was cited for violating departmental procedures because he refused to file a complaint against officer Rubio for his behavior when Lopez and Go- mez asked, according to the report. Instead, he directed them “to file their complaint di- rectly with Internal Affairs.” The CIP’s investigation logged the same violations against the officers. New Times has reached out to MPD’s La- bor Relations unit to learn Rubio’s punish- ment but has yet to hear back. [email protected] Miami police officer Heredia Rubio lost his cool during an encounter with police agitator Rafael Gomez. Screenshot via YouTube | METRO |
