Miami FOP Union Pres. Calls Out Driver Who Pulled Over Cop
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) – The Miami Fraternal Order of Police union president has taken to social media to call out the driver who pulled over a cop because he was apparently speeding.
Thousands upon thousands of people have viewed Claudia Castillo's video.
In it, she captures her pursuit of Miami-Dade police officer Daniel Fonticiella.
"He's been driving recklessly. He was going about 100 miles an hour cause I was hitting 80 and I could not catch up to him," Castillo could be heard saying.
When she finally stopped him, she gave him a classic police lecture.
"The reason I pulled you over today...You were pushing 90 miles per hour," you hear her say in the video.
On Monday, Castillo walked into the Miami-Dade Police internal affairs division in Miami Gardens afternoon to file a complaint. Her complaint turned into a formal internal affairs investigation of Fonticiella.
But now those thousands of views may have just turned into as many phone calls.
That's because Miami FOP Union President Javier Ortiz posted Castillo's phone number on his social media accounts.
Ortiz also posted several photos of Castillo, including a few of her driving a boat with a beer in hand.
One of the pictures was captioned: "Nobody is above the law Except me when I'm driving."
Ortiz's posts have generated mixed reactions.
One person argued people make mistakes and everyone should leave her alone.
Others expressed their support for Ortiz and his posts.
And many called out Castillo for going after Fonticiella even though she has a checkered driving history.
Court records show since 1998 she's been cited nine times for speeding, speeding in school zones, driving without a license and accidents.
And, according to the records, her latest crash happened just two weeks ago.
As for Fonticiella, police records show he isn't the best driver either.
Next to a stack of commendations for doing excellent police work, Fonticiella's personnel file also has a stack equally as large for accidents.
The files show that over the last decade Fonticella has crashed seven times. Most of the accidents were deemed non-preventable, but three were his fault.
In this case, however, Miami-Dade Police Union President John Rivera said there is no proof that Fonticiella was speeding in the video.
He then criticized Castillo, pointing out that officers are trained to drive at high rates of speed while she was not.
That being said, Rivera, didn't see eye to eye with Ortiz's decision to post a private citizen's information online.
"We are very careful what information we put out here at the PBA. I cannot speak for why or how another organization does it. I can tell you that it is not our style. That's not the way we do things. And for us and our standards, it's not appropriate," he said.
CBS4 reached out to Lt. Ortiz but he did not respond to the calls, visits or texts.
The police department had no comment on Ortiz, his behavior or performance as president of FOP.
As for Castillo, she is being harassed nonstop online, by phone and email, forcing her to lay low.
