Miami's Police Spokesperson Hit Jimmy John's Delivery Biker, but the Biker Got Arrested

Officer Kenia Fallat, a spokesperson for the Miami Police Department, was driving an unmarked cop car yesterday when she hit 19-year-old Jimmy John's sandwich-delivery bicyclist Mason Morales.

Yet somehow it was Morales who eventually ended up in jail on criminal mischief charges.

According to a police report and an anonymous tipster who sent photos of the crash's aftermath to New Times, Morales was biking at the intersection of NW Miami Court and West Flagler Street, just across from the Miami-Dade County Courthouse. Witnesses, who declined to be named because they feared speaking to the press would affect their jobs, say the unmarked car nailed the biker just before 3 p.m. yesterday.

After Morales was hit, the angry cyclist grabbed his bike and threw it at the car, according to the police and the witnesses. But those who watched the crash say Morales appeared to have no idea he'd been hit by a cop car until Fallat emerged. Fallat then called another officer to the scene, who handcuffed Morales and charged him with misdemeanor criminal mischief for throwing the bike.

The officer spoke to three witnesses; all three said Morales chucked his bike at the unmarked car's front passenger door, but the report doesn't say whether Fallat was initially at fault for hitting the cyclist.

MPD spokesperson Christopher Bess told New Times that Morales declined help from city fire rescue, likely meaning he was not injured. "But I was not there," Bess added. New Times asked if Fallat could respond, but Bess said she was "off today."

Morales is wearing a Jimmy John's T-shirt in the photograph. A manager at the downtown location where the cyclist works declined to comment yesterday, and Morales wasn't in when New Times called again today.

Here are a few other photos of the accident scene:
Oddly, this isn't the first time this summer that Fallat has been involved in a street altercation. She claims a Hialeah man pretending to be a cop "pulled her over" by flashing his security-guard badge at her in June.

Milton Morales-Perez, 46, was arrested on one count of impersonating a cop. The man, however, said he tried to get Fallat's attention because he claims she was talking on her cell phone while driving, which he said looked dangerous.