Case Closed: Sexual Battery Investigation Against Miami Beach Comm'r
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MIAMI BEACH (CBSMiami) -- The sexual battery investigation involving a Miami Beach commissioner is now closed.
The Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office told CBS4 it will not prosecute Ricky Arriola because the alleged victim did not cooperate with the investigation.
Last month, the woman filed a complaint saying Arriola sexually battered her during a date.
Al along, Arriola denied the allegations.
Monday afternoon, Arriola released a statement saying,
"The State Attorney's Office has dismissed a complaint stemming from an encounter that allegedly took place in December 2017. I publicly denied the allegations from the very start and did everything in my power to immediately cooperate with the State Attorney's investigation. On the contrary, the woman who filed the complaint refused to speak with the police and State Attorney's Office, nor was she able to explain glaring factual inconsistencies between her initial statement and the testimony of eye-witnesses. In the end, investigators determined there was insufficient evidence to pursue the matter and opted to dismiss the case entirely. I have always contended that these allegations were patently false and were simply an attempt to tarnish my public image. We now know that this complaint should have never been filed in the first place."
Arriola also spoke to CBS4 and said, "Everyone who knows me, knows that this is false and now that the SAO has done its investigation on this woman…she didn't even have the decency to go to the SAO and give her statement. She didn't want her case to fall apart."