City of Miami v. Betty Fernandez

N/A

OUTCOME: Defendant prevailed

In the City of Mia-muh!, the so-called Gateway to the Americas, it is illegal for hard-working immigrant waitresses to engage in conversation with their sloshed customers. So says the city's ordinance ... 4-4, section 4-4: "It shall be unlawful for employees or entertainers in places dispensing alcoholic beverages for consumption on the premises to mingle or fraternize with the customers or patrons of such establishment." Miami's police department enthusiastically enforces this law in select areas, such as Little Havana and Allapattah, where the cops have been cracking down on low-rent cafeterías that allegedly double as houses of ill repute, gambling dens, and dope holes for immigrants hailing from Central and South America. Scores of camareras have been busted for engaging in unauthorized speech, civil rights be damned. However, Miami Five-O may have busted the wrong Peruvian during a recent raid. Betty Fernandez, 24, claims she was falsely arrested on the evening of January 10 at Tú Rincon Latino at 2200 NW 28th St. in Allapattah. According to her arrest report, Fernandez was booked on one count of violating the city's no-conversation law. Fernandez says the cops messed up. "I have never worked there," she says. "I was there to watch my boyfriend play in a pool tournament and have some fun." Fernandez says her boyfriend was asked to move his car so another patron could leave. As she waited for him to return, about ten cops dressed in black bum-rushed Tú Rincon Latino. "Next thing I know, the cops are asking me for identification, asking me if I worked there," Fernandez continues. "I said no. But ... another officer cuffed me and told me I was being arrested." After spending the night in jail, she hired North Miami Beach criminal defense lawyer James Rubin, who says that not only did Miami cops wrongly arrest Fernandez, but the city's archaic ordinance violates the right to free speech. He seeks to have the charges against Fernandez dismissed on the grounds that the law is unconstitutional. "Under the ordinance, you can shill food and drinks, but you can't talk to the customer about the upcoming presidential election or anything else," Rubin explains. "You also don't see the city busting the dancers at that strip club Goldrush in downtown Miami for mingling with the customers. It's a discriminatory law." http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2004-04-08/news/ass-good-as-it-gets/2