Carlos Bertonatti Was Doing 80 On Crandon After Killing Cyclist Christophe Le Canne

Minutes after Carlos Bertonatti drunkenly killed a cyclist on the Rickenbacker Causeway, an officer clocked him topping 80 mph as he tore down Crandon Boulevard and dodged traffic with a bicycle wedged under his fender. His blood alcohol content at the time was at least .122 -- well over the...

By Tim Elfrink

April 8, 2010

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Minutes after Carlos Bertonatti drunkenly killed a cyclist on the Rickenbacker Causeway, an officer clocked him topping 80 mph as he tore down Crandon Boulevard and dodged traffic with a bicycle wedged under his fender.

His blood alcohol content at the time was at least .122 -- well over the legal limit of .08.

So says a previously unreleased police report and toxicology analysis which prosecutors have prepared for Bertonatti's defense team, and which Riptide recently obtained.

Bertonatti's lawyer, Leonard Sands, declined to comment for this story.

Police say that Bertonatti, an aspiring musician with a long record of bad driving, swerved his 2007 Volkwagon into the bike lane just after 8 a.m. on January 17. He struck Christophe Le Canne, a 44-year-old South Miami resident, who died soon after on the pavement as passing bikers tried to save him.

Minutes later, a Key Biscayne cop, Felix Huertas, spotted Bertonatti's car with "extensive front end damage" fly past the 600 block of Crandon Boulevard. Huertas says he flipped his lights on, and that Bertonatti tried to flee.

"Upon seeing my lights activate, (Bertonatti) began to increase his speed in excess of 80 miles per hour, almost colliding with slower moving traffic ahead of him," Huertas writes in the report.

Huertas followed Bertonatti back to his condo on Grapetree Drive and arrested him.

As we've reported before, Bertonatti refused to believe he'd killed a cyclist, yelling, "You're lying to me ... cops do that stuff all the time!"

Officers later forcibly strapped Bertonatti to a stretcher so they could get a blood sample.

The resulting toxicology tests, which Riptide has also obtained, confirms our earlier report that his BAC was .122 -- a level that an adult man his size would need to drink six beers in an hour to reach.

Bertonatti tested negative for pot, cocaine, and a battery of other drugs.

The next hearing in Bertonatti's criminal trial is set for May 3. He has pleaded not guilty to counts of DUI manslaughter, vehicular homicide, resisting arrest, and leaving the scene of a fatal accident.

In the meantime, he remains in jail; his initial $100,000 bond was revoked when authorities learned he'd lied about owning multiple passports.

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Tim Elfrink is a former investigative reporter and managing editor for Miami New Times. He has won the George Polk Award and was a finalist for the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting.

Contact: Tim Elfrink

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