Kicked out of a campaign kick-off

There was a large crowd Saturday at the grand opening of the campaign headquarters for Hialeah’s unelected alcaldito Carlos Hernandez and his Yes Crew Minus One. But even if it ws just the immediate families of the five incumbent candidates there would have been a big crowd.

Still, two people were very conspicuously MIA from the festivities.

More than 200 people stood sat in the parking lot or stood in the little shade they could find at the shopping center on 12th Avenue and 38th Street to listen to Hernandez as he listed his claims to fame — stopping the red light camera program, legalizing illegal efficiencies, slashing the mayor’s salary to $190,000, opening parks that the city had closed — flanked by former Hialeah Housing Authority member Lourdes Lozano, who was the best Hernandez could do to try to force former Councilman and Hialeah Housing Authority Director Alex “The Professor” Morales into a runoff, and the entire council except one of the incumbents fighting for re-election. Visibly missing from the platform as well as the campaign literature on the table: Councilwoman Vivian Casals-Munoz, who is facing a challenge from Danny Bolanos, the former cop and son of the former chief, and last-minute entrant Tony Vega, a gun dealer who Ladra predicts will take Vivian’s place on the slate. One of the few Hernandez supporters that was unafraid to speak to me in public, said Casals-Munoz — who reportedly got there late, but Ladra is sure they would have waited if she was part of the Hernandez slate — had made the decision to separate herself from the group. But that makes no sense and other sources say she has been left out intentionally by Hernandez and the other incumbents. Why on Earth would they leave out the official notary public of the 1st Hialeah Bank of Julito, former mayor Julio Robaina‘s own relative (Casals-Munoz is related to Robaina’s first wife)? Hmmmm. Inquiring minds want to know if it has anything do with the federal investigation into loans made to the ponzi schemer and jeweler Luis Felipe Perez by Roberto and Mercy Blanco and Robaina. Or loans of her own, uncovered in the inquiry, that she may not have declared on her income taxes. One of the people Ladra spoke to who testified before the grand jury said “she’s toast.” Maybe Hernandez (once rumored to be in trouble, too, for his own loaning moonlighting, but seemingly in the clear by the way he is acting) and the council know something we don’t. We’ve been hearing about this grand jury investigation for weeks and the rumored resolution that is supposed to come this month. Maybe after that, Hernandez will officially pull Vega — whose signs are already adhered to Hernandez sign posts around the city — into his slate.

And just because Ladra didn’t see Vega at the campaign party Saturday, doesn’t mean he wasn’t there. Ladra had to leave early after someone inside the campaign office called the police and an officer issued her a trespass warning. Yes, folks, someone called the popo on Ladra again. It hadn’t happened since Miami Vice PAC chair Vanessa Brito called the cops on me during early voting for the recall at the Miami Lakes library. I was due. Officer Horacio Lopez and Sgt. Frank Agoglia were very nice and professional as they followed orders for what amounts to harassment for political reasons (read: official misconduct). Because by the time Officer Lopez, standing in the parking lot, called me over from the shopping mall promenade with his index finger, I had left the private campaign office because I was obviously not welcome. I had been inside twice earlier that day and nobody had complained until I started to take photographs of some older man suffering from heatstroke or something being attended to by, possibly, the very same Hialeah firefighter paramedics that the incumbents want to fire Oct. 1. I thought it would be poetic imagery, and you gotta admit that Council President Isis “Guttergirl” Garcia-Martinez is perfectly caught in all her angry glory. First, she tried to get in my way so I didn’t have a shot. After I moved around her, she started yelling that I could not take photos and that I was not welcome there. I objected, asking if I was the only person that had been asked to leave a political campaign office event that the general public had been publicly invited to attend. But getting no answer, and having my photo, I left. About a minute later, after I was outside, is when I got called over by the police. But I was not trespassing and that should be corrected. Maybe I was going to have a cafecito. Maybe I wanted to try my luck at the illegal maquinitas at Little Vegas Hialeah a few doors away.

Ladra has asked for the public records on the police call and the radio communications — and cellphone records, in case the normal operating procedures for such a call were circumvented — that preceded this trespass order for such a dangerous watchdog. I want to frame it and hang it up, of course. It’s a badge of honor, really.

But I wonder if it’s also evidence of a false police call or making a false police report since I had already left the premises and was in the public area.