Miami Beach Official Claims Candidate Exposed Himself To Her

MIAMI BEACH, FL — With one week to go before the election, a Miami Beach commissioner told Patch late Monday that she is considering filing a criminal complaint against a candidate who she claims exposed himself to her in her car. Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez said that the incident occurred on Oct. 18 but that she was "embarrassed" to go public until it looked as though Rafael A. Velasquez was likely to win a seat on the commission. Velasquez denied the allegation through a Facebook post.

"After it happened, I swept it under the rug and continued to campaign for him," Rosen Gonzalez told patch. "I think I was ashamed and by ignoring it and pretending that it didn’t happen would make it go away."

In his Facebook post, Velasquez blamed opponent Mark Samuelian. "What I do know is this. I would never, ever, in a million years behave in the way the commissioner describes it," he said on Facebook. "You know it, I know it, and she knows it. Moreover, her story just doesn’t make sense, and is a twisted attempt to accuse me of something horrible the one time we were alone together this month."

Velasquez said that he had dinner with Rosen Gonzalez and her daughters after the incident.

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"Per the commissioner’s story, after I made her feel unsafe and acted in a highly inappropriate way, she then proceeded not only to continue supporting me for almost two weeks, and helping me raise money, but also had me at her table for dinner several times with her and her daughters. Does that sound like the way you would act with someone that acted inappropriately with you?"

Samuelian called the allegation "ludicrous" through a statement to Patch on Tuesday morning. “Mr. Velasquez’s effort to deflect responsibility by bringing his opponent into this is ludicrous and speaks more to his flawed character,” according to spokesman Christian Ulvert.

A second woman, identified as Frances Alban of Alban Communications told Local 10 News that Velasquz grabbed her backside while taking a photograph with her in June and then sent suggestive text messages.

Velasquez is running for the same seat held by former Commissioner Michael Grieco, who resigned last week and entered into a plea agreement with the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office over a misdemeanor election finance crime.

"As we got closer to Election Day and I saw that he was going to win, and I was going to enable a sick and troubled man, a Bill Cosby, a Harvey Weinstein, I realized I had to come forward to protect other women," Rosen Gonzalez told Patch.

Rosen Gonzalez, who is running for Congress in the seat now held by the retiring U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, said she may also go to the police.

"I have not involved police to date, but I am considering filing charges," Rosen Gonzalez said.

"The right thing for him to do is apologize to me, the other women, his wife and his family, and then go for help," she explained. "He needs therapy. And possibly help for alcohol abuse: What he does not need is to be in a position of power, which I think will endanger other women."

Rosen Gonzalez called her decision to come forward one of the most difficult she has ever had to make. "It is embarrassing, and I am ashamed, when my only crime was helping him get elected," she said. "He should withdraw from the race, as he has no business being in public office. He has no respect for women."

Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez photo courtesy Miami Beach