Crime & Safety
Miami Beach Commissioner: 'Zero Truth' To Complaint
Miami Beach Commissioner Ricky Arriola told Patch there is "zero truth" to a complaint made against him by a woman he met online.
MIAMI BEACH, FL — Miami Beach Commissioner Ricky Arriola told Patch on Thursday there is "zero truth" to a complaint made against him by a woman he met online. Miami Beach police confirmed that the complaint involved an allegation of sexual battery but declined to release specific details of the incident.
"I was on a first date with a woman who I met on an online dating site," according to Arriola, an attorney and successful businessman. "I felt that she had too much to drink over dinner and she was intoxicated."
Arriola said that he decided to call it a night.
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"I believed that the best thing to do was end the date and go home," he said in a statement to Patch. "She was upset with my decision, but I knew this was the right thing to do."
Arriola was first elected to the Miami Beach Commission in November 2015 with a 59 percent vote margin. He is also the founder and CEO of Inktel Holdings Corporation which owns several business process outsourcing companies. The company employs more than 800 people throughout South Florida and hundreds outside of the state.
Find out what's happening in Miami Beachfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Ernesto Rodriguez of the Miami Beach Police Department said that the complaint against Arriola is now in the hands of the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office.
"The Miami Beach Police Department has referred this matter to the State Attorney's Office for investigation," Rodriguez said late Thursday afternoon. "Any further media inquiries should be directed to the State Attorney's Office."
Arriola is a former board chairman of the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County and was appointed by then President Obama to serve on the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (PCAH). He also holds a Masters in Business Administration from Harvard.
He told Patch there were multiple people around him who could back up his account.
"Multiple witnesses who saw us that evening can confirm this sequence of events," Arriola said.
Commissioner Ricky Arriola photo courtesy city of Miami Beach
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