I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest that Candice Padavick had no plan, after having gotten out of the cab after she was told the cabbie didn’t take plastic, gone up to her apartment on Collins Avenue in Miami Beach, of returning to pay her $16.90 fare. Once she undressed and put on a robe, she was calling it a night. It’s wrong to beat the cabbie out of a fare.
But then, a security guard in her building, Juan Camona, a gentleman by any standard, gave the cabbie a $20 to cover the charge. It’s unfortunate that it came after the cabbie called the police about the fare beater.
According to court documents recently obtained by NBC, Padavick took a cab home one night several months ago and was unable to pay him with a credit card, so she had to go to her apartment to get him his money.
“It was $16.90. I wont forget. I tried to pay with a credit card and when I tried to pay he said no no I only take cash,” Padavic told reporters.
As the cab driver began to get impatient, he called police in fear that he would not get paid.
Don’t blame the cabbie. He works for a living, and it’s not like he’s getting rich sitting there waiting for Padavic to come back to pay him. But once paid, the problem is addressed. Unless you’re a Miami Beach cop.
The security guard then told the cab driver to call the police to tell them that the issue has been resolved. However, the police ended up arriving at the apartment an hour later looking for Padavic anyway.
Police claim that they did not need a warrant to enter Padavic’s home or detain her because she was intoxicated and argumentative when they came to her door. Police have failed to obtain any evidence to prove that Padavic was intoxicated, even though they had numerous opportunities to check while she was in custody.
Whether or not Padavic was intoxicated is a red herring. If so, so what? She’s allowed to be drunk in her apartment, and the cops still can’t enter without a warrant. In the NBC News version of this story, the cops claim they feared for their safety, because in copworld, that’s the magic that allows them to ignore all law and do as they please. You know how scary naked women in robes can be to he-man cops like officers Giordano Cardoso and Joseph Gonzalez.
“They pulled me out of the apartment and my towel fell off my head and I started trying to run back inside and the cops come into my apartment….. And so he’s jerking me around and so I have his arm and my robe hanging off and this is completely open–nothing underneath. And then more cops come up,” she said.
After all, there’s always a desperate need for backup when there’s a naked woman to be seen. Did I mention how scary naked women can be?
Padavick was detained in public, completely naked for at least 30 minutes, and was abused so badly by police that cuts and bruises were clearly visible after the attack.
For those who, like me, ponder what happened, this is a prime example of why words like “abuse” are meaningless. Did they beat her? Did they dig their nails into her skin and cause cuts? Did they punch her or kick her? Well, they “abused” her, so we will never know what happened. Words matter, and vague words may be incredibly popular, but obscure the facts. That’s quite unfortunate.
And what of the fact that the cabbie (remember him?) had long since been paid his fare, plus tip, and left to drive off into the night?
Officer Gonzalez has said under oath that he didn’t have any clue that there was a possibility that the fee was paid. However, Juan Camona from Oceanside Plaza Security has said that he told police that he paid the fee, but they said that he wasn’t allowed to.
After all, if Camona was allowed to engage in unwarranted chivalry by compensating the cabbie, protecting a resident of the building who may have been too intoxicated to properly handle matters but who was now safely ensconced in her apartment, assure that a hard-working cab driver wasn’t stiffed for his fare and duly inform the hard-working he-man cops, Gonzalez and Cardoso, that they need not waste their valuable time with Padavick, but could head straight down to Tongue & Cheek donuts in South Beach while they were still warm, they wouldn’t have gotten to spend a half hour checking out an attractive naked woman they unlawfully pulled from her apartment.
Padavick is suing the Miami Police for their “handling” of this matter, now that charges against her for “resisting arrest, battery on a law enforcement officer, and petit theft for no payment of the taxi ride,” have been dismissed.
A female officer later arrived and placed a garment on Padavick.
It probably never dawned on officers Cardoso and Gonzalez to cover her up as she remained naked in her lobby, as they were too afraid for their safety to think straight.
H/T Jake DiMare
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It must be that I have seen more naked homeless men talking to god, in handcuffs, on the street in my lifetime than NBC has.
P.S. Attractive usually correlates with a nearly perfectly symmetrical face. I blame the bartender but it wasn’t her fault either.
Pro Tip: A robe compliments a Bailey’s and coffee well after breakfast but only pajama bottoms will do when searching the cavernous debts of the liquor cabinet for a perfect nightcap.
NBC should consider taking you on for “expert naked talking to god in handcuffs on the street commentary.” They could do worse.
I don’t know. The way these kinds of stories go, I’m actually kind of relieved the cops didn’t charge Juan Camona with obstruction or worse for bribing a witness to leave the scene. Maybe we should just call it a draw.
Juan Camona is my hero. I would have made Tannebaum defend him for free if they screwed with him.
Paying cab fare for acquaintances is a gateway drug. The heady rush that comes from that doesn’t last long, and not enough residents come into the building without cash for the cabbie. Next thing you know, Juan will be out on the streets, looking for expiring meters to shove quarters into. After he has acquired a taste for helping complete strangers, how long can it be before he completely self-destructs and starts handing out free meals to homeless Floridians?
Even if what he did is not a crime, I think immediate court-ordered rehab is the only safe course of action.
They didn’t need a warrant because “she was intoxicated and argumentative when they came to her door?”
What kind of talk is that? Go knock on your neighbor’s door in the middle of the night and call him a thief. See if he doesn’t become “argumentative.”
Be as argumentative as you want. They still have no warrant, and knock and talk don’t mean squat.
As a regular reader of you and Balko, I never go too long without a “cops respond to innocuous situation with an appalling mixture of aggression and incompetence, escalating it beyond all reason, then offer ‘because officer safety’ as a justification for their actions” story
Sadly this young lady should be thankful, most often the folks on the wrong side of these things end up far worse off.
And I’ll also go out on a limb and suggest that in a couple of months time, there will be another story on this case, and it will include the phrase “cleared of any wrongdoing”.
Well, it is a very dangerous job, you know. (That’s sarcasm, for the next guy who wants to tell me the BLS garbage man death numbers for the 10,000th time.)
Garbagemen??!?
Surely at least a few of those 10,000 readers besides me must have already pointed out that garbagemen at least have a steady paycheck, unlike that cab driver. He’s lucky that he was just stiffed, and not killed, by the passenger.
The cops are lucky (and the general public eternally grateful) that they weren’t involved in any fatal car accidents on the way to the scene. This may be one area where the hard-core free market types have it right — the police obviously don’t have the same incentives as the cabbies to take care of their cars — if they run over one of their customers, the rest of their customers will keep paying their salaries, and also foot the bill for both the lawsuit and the new car.