Sunday, March 25, 2012

Carlos Noriega wants to do for Fontainebleau Hotel Security what he did for the Miami Beach Police Dept.


When Carlos Noriega retired last year as Miami Beach's police chief, he left a department in shambles.

Last November, the Miami Herald's David Smiley reported, "Since Memorial Day [2011], the department has dealt with a high-profile and fatal shooting; an officer’s drunken, July 3 ATV crash into two pedestrians on the beach; demotions; firings, and criticisms of their overtime, pay and pensions."

After retiring from the police department, Noriega quietly became the head of security for the Fontainebleau Hotel.

Now, it appears that Noriega is running the ritzy hotel's security department the same way he ran the police department.

A source tells Random Pixels that police responded to a report of a sexual assault at the hotel this morning.

The source says a man attempted to rape a woman in one of hotel's cabanas early Sunday. The assault was interrupted when the woman's boyfriend returned to the cabana to find the assailant, pants down, on top of the victim. According to my source, the man fled before police arrived.

It's the second sexual assault in less than a week to occur at the swank resort.

Last Thursday, Miami Beach police arrested 26-year old Rafael Munguia for sexually assaulting a female hotel guest as she slept.

Police say Munguia was able to gain entry to the woman's 15th floor room because her door was left "slightly ajar."

According to the Miami Herald, the victim..."was in Miami Beach to attend the Winter Music Conference and staying in a room next door to her sister [when she] woke up during the attack and tried to fight Munguia off. He ran when she screamed for help, [police spokeswoman Vivian] Hernandez said."

The Herald story quotes police spokeswoman Hernandez as saying that Munguia was a Fontainebleau guest who was staying on the 8th floor.

However, Random Pixels has learned that Munguia was not a guest at the Fontainebleau.

A source tells me that Munguia was staying at the Loew's at 16th Street and Collins Avenue on South Beach but was kicked out for being drunk.
Rafael Munguia

Munguia hailed a cab and traveled 25 blocks north to the Fontainebleau. Once there, the source says Munguia was spotted by hotel security wandering shirtless around the Fontainebleu's lobby.

When asked if he was a guest, Munguia responded by telling the security guard the floor number of his room at the Loew's: 15.

I'm told the security guard escorted Munguia to the 15th floor and left him there. Munguia tried several of the doors until he found an open door. And that's when he assaulted his victim.

Following last Thursday's attack, the Herald's David Smiley reported "a Fontainebleau spokeswoman issued a statement, calling the incident 'isolated.' "



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