Angelica Pacheco, who made the runoff for a Hialeah council seat last week, was arrested twice in the past. Once for assault in what she said was self defense against an abusive man and once for child abuse in what she said was a misunderstanding. But she used a belt.
Ladra didn’t even know about the assault charge when she called Pacheco Sunday to ask her about the arrest. Pacheco — who faces Bryan Calvo Nov. 16 — must have thought she meant her first arrest.
“My mother and I were the victims of domestic violence,” she said Sunday. “I had to leave home and I got married to an older man to do it.”
That man locked her mother in a bathroom, she said. She tried to get her out. One thing led to another and after the police were called, she ended up getting charged with aggravated assault and criminal mischief, she said.
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Ladra doesn’t have that police report (yet) and can’t verify that’s how it happened. The report that Ladra called Pacheco, 35, about happened in 2011 and it is a charge of child abuse with no great bodily harm.
Her name was Angelica Caballero back then.
“My son had told the teacher that I had spanked him. It didn’t even go to court,” she said, adding that the police officer arrested her after she complained about the officer’s rudeness.
But the police report has a little more detail about the Dec. 14, 2011 incident.
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“Victim is a 5-year-old male, his mother, the defendant, is 25 years of age. The victim disclosed the defendant hit him with a belt,” the arrest affidavit reads. “The victim further disclosed the defendant told him not to tell anyone.
“I made contact with the victim and observed a linear welt and bruise across the victim’s upper right thigh. The injuries were consistent with the victim’s disclosures,” the arresting officer wrote, adding that Pacheco was placed under arrest after she asked for an attorney.
Furthermore, the case did go to court. And a search of court records show that, before it was resolved there was even a stay-away order issued for the minor.
Pacheco has made her campaign about her “life experience” compared to Calvo, who is 23 and a law student at Florida International University.
“He’s been very fortunate to have a very supportive family. He’s never had to have a job. He’s never had to pay employees. He’s never had to decide between buying groceries or paying rent,” Pacheco said. “These are experiences you can’t get in school.
“I went to school, too. I am a registered nurse. But I have that real life experience.”
Hialeah council candidate has arrests in her past, for assault and child abuse added by Ladra on
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