In today’s Daily Digest, we told you about how Republican candidate David M. Rivera once ran a truck off the road because it was carrying flyers printed for his opponent in a state legislative race, in the hopes of preventing it from reaching the post office on time. Rivera’s campaign is, of course, twisting itself into a pretzel-shaped object in an attempt to deny the story.
Now we have another ugly episode from Rivera’s past:
As he seeks to jump from the Legislature to Congress, Republican state Rep. David Rivera is fighting off a nasty attack from his GOP rivals — an allegation that he was accused of domestic violence in the 1990s.
One of Rivera’s opponents in the Republican primary, Paul Crespo, has raised the issue on a website. Another opponent, Marili Cancio, repeated the allegations in a television interview earlier this month.
Rivera denies he was ever accused of domestic violence — a charge first raised in 2002, during his first political campaign. In a written statement to The Miami Herald, Rivera slammed his opponents for trying to “libel, slander and defame my character.”
The allegation arises from a 1994 petition for a domestic-violence restraining order filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court against one David M. Rivera. The court file has been destroyed — by law, family court files are not retained after five years — along with any details or additional identifying information. Only a computer record of the docket is available today.
The restraining order was dropped after a month, and no criminal charges were filed, records show. But inconsistencies in Rivera’s responses to the claim in years past and today have helped make it a campaign issue heading into the Aug. 24 Republican primary, a Miami Herald/WFOR-CBS 4 review has found.
Really, just read the whole thing. Get a load of Rivera’s dismissals of anyone who contradicts his story as perpetrators of an “obvious hoax”.
Is the person who supposedly filed the domestic abuse claim is denying this is the same David Rivera. Even today!
Putting on my detective hat, I’m assuming that she did file the charge against the politician David Rivera, but now regrets it and is denying it was him to protect him?
Thing is, that makes it a bit confusing and less than straightforward for the voter than the usual domestic violence charge. I mean, what do you do when the victim is denying it’s even the same person? Then there’s the whole truck crashing incident, which Rivera seems to be blantantly lying about.
What does everyone else think?
Anyone care to refresh my memory?
… who are supposedly str8, doing owning a house together? hmmmmmmmmmmmm
Wait, I think I hear a giant sucking sound. Ooops, that was just Ross Perot…