As a three-term Miami commissioner and two-time state trooper, Joe Sanchez has had to clear up his share of messes over the years.
But the Florida Highway Patrol spokesman had nothing to compare to what he found Saturday morning when he ventured outside his home in Miami's Roads neighborhood, and found his patrol car covered with several pounds of what appeared to be human waste.
"It happened. Someone threw feces on the car," said FHP spokesman Sgt. Mark Wysocky.
Sanchez, who rejoined FHP after a failed run for Miami mayor in 2009, said he couldn't discuss the incident -- widely speculated to be retaliation for a Miami police officer being detained and ticketed by an FHP trooper last month.
According to an FHP offense report and Wysocky, someone dumped about five gallons of human excrement -- possibly pulled from port-o-potties -- onto Sanchez's FHP vehicle parked in the driveway of his home. Pictures released by the FHP show the waste on the driver's side window and windshield.
The report said the incident happened between 6:45 a.m., when Sanchez left his home, and 10:15 a.m., when he reported it. FHP summoned a private firm it uses to clear hazardous material sites to clean up the mess.
"We have no suspects and no witnesses," said Wysocky. "It's basically done."
What he meant was there would likely be no further investigation. There wasn't even a report filed with Miami police, which means the department has no plan, as of now, to follow up on the incident, said Miami police spokesman Delrish Moss.
Both agencies seem to be handling the situation with kid gloves, fearing the incident might further ignite an already smoldering controversy that began a month ago.
That was when FHP Officer Donna Jane Watts' early morning ticketing of Miami Police Officer Fausto Lopez was captured on video and went viral creating a war of words -- mostly over the Internet -- between officers of the two agencies.
On the video, Watts pulls over Lopez after a chase, draws her weapon, handcuffs him, and places him in the back of her patrol car, before letting him go after charging Lopez with reckless driving for allegedly going 120 miles per hour in the south lane of Florida's Turnpike near the Hollywood exit.
During the 45-minute video Watts is told by a supervisor to abandon the chase, though it's unclear if she heard the order, and complains to Lopez about how often she sees Miami cops flying by her at dangerous speeds.
All the while Lopez denies he was aware she was chasing him, despite flashing lights and a siren for several minutes, and asks her to please release him from the handcuffs.
Over the past two weeks the incident has ignited a firestorm between the two law enforcement agencies, with people claiming to be Miami cops threatening Watts and hurling vile statements at her on a law enforcement blog.
Writers claiming to be FHP troopers have responded in kind, sometimes referring to Miami cops as crooks who endanger the public.
The vice president of Miami's police union even issued a letter calling Watts mentally unstable, and advising officers to avoid accessing sensitive law enforcement databases loaded with personal information that could be used to target Watts.
Miami police believe Watts violated several unwritten rules of law enforcement by pulling over a fellow officer in a marked car for a minor infraction, drawing a weapon, and handcuffing him.
In another example of possible retaliation, Wysocky said two highway patrol vehicles have been pulled over by Miami officers in the past two weeks.
"They were pulled over and spoken to with no enforcement action taken," he told The Miami Herald Wednesday. He said he had no further information.
As for the incident involving Sanchez's car, no one is ready to lay the blame on Miami police -- although speculation is rampant.
"Some people go "Oh, it's got to be the city of Miami.' No, it doesn't. It could have been a disgruntled neighbor for all we know. It could have been anybody," FHP union chief William Smith told Univision- Channel 23. "It could have been a cousin of a cousin who has a friend who is in law enforcement and he felt like he needed to show his displeasure with what happened last month."
Copyright 2011 - The Miami Herald
