How a Tawdry Steakhouse Melee Transfixed Miami Politics
The New York Times
A city commissioner was dining at Morton’s. A lobbyist came up with a beef that wasn’t about lunch. Everyone called the police. The incident has dominated Miami’s political chatter for days.
CORAL GABLES, Fla. — Every so often, a petty political episode consumes Miami, its piquant details transfixing the city for days. Like the one that began this week at Morton’s Steakhouse during a late lunch, when a lobbyist happened upon a city commissioner.
Depending on who’s telling the story, the lobbyist, Carlos J. Gimenez, whose father is a local congressman, either slapped (according to the police) or flicked his wrist (according to the commissioner) at the back of the head of Commissioner Alex Díaz de la Portilla of Miami, after greeting him with a sexual epithet and a query: “Do you remember me?”
A detective from the Miami Police Department’s special investigations section, who was providing security to the commissioner, at that point approached Mr. Gimenez.
