A police union chief in Florida has taken to social media to blast the civilian vigilante who decided to give a police officer a piece of her mind on video after the Miami woman believed the cop was speeding.
Filming from her driver’s seat, Claudia Castillo shot three videos total of Miami-Dade Police Officer Daniel Fonticiella moving quickly through traffic on Dolphin Expressway and her confronting him after he pulled over on January 29.
Javier Ortiz, the Miami Fraternal Order of Police union president, called Castillo out in several posts to Facebook and Twitter, including a photo that appears to be her in a bikini driving a boat while drinking a beer.
On the picture of her, Ortiz wrote: ‘Nobody is above the law Except me when I’m driving.’
In another post that has since been deleted, he shared Castillo’s business card with her phone number and wrote: ‘Feel free to call Claudia Castillo at her cell and let her know drinking and driving on a boat isn’t safe. #shesNOTaboveTheLaw #wesupportmdpd It’s important that law enforcement is aware of this woman.’
Ortiz also shared an image of Castillo taken during an interview she gave with NBC Miami about the viral video.
He captioned the photo: ‘Oh look, cop wannabe (sic) Claudia Castillo got cited for careless driving 2 weeks ago. Sounds like a #COPhater.’
Court records show that since 1998, Castillo has been cited at least 14 times for speeding, speeding in school zones, driving without a license and accidents, NBC Miami reported.
Her latest crash happened two weeks ago, as she is under investigation by the Florida Highway Patrol for the alleged reckless driving incident.
‘To keep up with him I’ve had to push the limit and everything and I actually know he was going about 100mph because I was going about 80,’ Claudia says in the video as she follows the officer.
Ironically, to catch the allegedly speeding officer Claudia herself had to speed about 20mph over the 60mph speed limit on the Dolphin Expressway.
Claudia says in the video at one point when she was able to catch up to him due to the highway congestion, she flashed her lights and honked her horn to get him to pull over.
Eventually when she does get him to pull over it’s because he was worried she was having an emergency.
Fonticiella pulls over with his lights on and Claudia begins to lecture him about his speeding.
‘The reason I pulled you over today and I’m asking you to come over and have a conversation is because I saw you, since Miller Drive when you were first jumping onto the Palmetto, and you were pushing 90 miles an hour,’ Claudia says to Fonticiella in the video.
‘Really?’ OK,’ he responds.
‘You were pushing 90mph because I was going right behind you and you passed me.
‘I was going like 35mph down Miller and you passed me like I was standing still,’ she says continuing to reprimand the officer.
She begins to explain how she followed him from one highway to another and says: ‘I was pushing 80 and I was still eating your dust and I just wanted to know what’s the emergency?’
Fonticiella tells her he doesn’t believe he was speeding and that he’s ‘on his way to work’.
He goes on to tell her she’s ‘entitled to her opinion’ and that he was fearful she had an emergency, which is why he pulled over.
She replies: ‘No everything’s fine. It’s just your speeding.’
The officer offers to give her his name and badge number, but she says no and continues to lecture him about ‘being a leader in the community’.
