Key West police clocked a motorcycle driven by Miami-Dade Commissioner Jose "Pepe" Diaz going 74 mph on a road where the posted limit is 30 mph Saturday evening. When police pulled over the motorcycle, they described the driver as having a "strong odor of alcoholic beverage on his breath," according to reports.
When he first stopped, Diaz had trouble controlling the motorcycle and it almost fell over.
"I'm Commissioner Diaz. I apologize," he told officers. Later, he tells them, "I'm the most pro-police guy there is," and apologized again.
Diaz told Officer Alexander Rodriguez Jr. that he had had a rum-and-coke and one glass of champagne about three hours before the traffic stop.
"During the time I spoke with Diaz, I noticed him to have a slight slur, his eyes to be bloodshot, watery and glassy, his eyelids to be droopy and a moderate to strong odor of an alcoholic beverage coming from his breath and person," Rodriguez wrote in his report.
Rodriguez administered five roadside sobriety tests to Diaz, who declined to give a sample for a breathalyzer test.
On police body cam videos released Monday, Diaz can be heard saying, "All we're trying to do is have a good time down here." At one point an officer tells him, "We just had a woman killed out here. Three nights ago," and "You have no business riding a motorcycle this evening. None whatsoever."
Diaz was arrested on a charge of driving under the influence, and also received citations for speeding and driving without his driver's license. He was released on $1,000 bond Sunday. On Monday, he was seeing a doctor for a burn he received during the traffic stop, said Brian Andrews, a spokesman for Diaz.
Diaz has a court appearance scheduled for Oct. 5, Andrews said.
"He feels horrible about what he's put his family through, and what the voters think," Andrews said. "He's got to go through the process just like anybody else. And the process is under way."
