Audio By Carbonatix
When you sign up as a ride-share driver for Uber or Lyft, it can be hard to predict where the job will take you day-to-day. Granted, some places are no-brainers. Malls? Likely. Hotels? Almost definitely.
But South Florida Uber driver Omar Kevon Marquez-Ocasio, 29, probably could never have guessed a routine trip for a random customer would end with him behind bars in Miami Beach after a botched prostitution sting, according to a federal lawsuit he’s filed against the City of Miami Beach and Miami Beach Police Department. Filed Aug. 15 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, the lawsuit argues that Miami Beach Police wantonly arrested Marquez-Ocasio, charged him with knowingly transporting someone for the purpose of prostitution (a state misdemeanor), held him in a cell for four days, and eventually dropped charges after realizing their mistake.
Marquez-Ocasio’s attorney, Benjamin Kurtz, tells New Times that officers had plenty of evidence to realize his client was simply driving a stranger somewhere as part of his Uber duties, including the fact that he was logged into the driver-specific version of the app and that another rider was waiting for pickup while he was handcuffed. An officer actually took Marquez-Ocasio’s phone to cancel the ride so Uber could find the customer another driver, Kurtz says.
“It’s just crazy that they arrested him. I mean, just absolutely crazy,” Kurtz told New Times when reached by phone.
On a December night in 2024, Marquez-Ocasio picked up a now-36-year-old woman near Lincoln Road Mall who requested a ride to The Julia Hotel on Collins Avenue about 2 miles away.
According to the lawsuit (attached below), “Minutes after the drop-off, and roughly three blocks away, plaintiff’s vehicle was surrounded by Miami Beach police officers at the 100 block of 5th Street. He was ordered out of his car, handcuffed, and taken to jail. No officer told him why. When he asked, Defendant Sergeant James Nolan told him, in substance, “you look familiar to me, so you’re going to jail tonight.”
Undercover officers set up a sting operation to catch the passenger of the unwitting Marquez-Ocasio. New Times has redacted her name from the above documents because a search of Miami-Dade County records indicates that police either never charged her with any crimes related to the incident or dropped the charges sometime later.
According to the lawsuit, Marquez-Ocasio became entangled in the trap after the woman told undercover officers a friend was driving her from Fort Lauderdale to drop her off at the hotel (a common type of white lie women sometimes use to protect themselves from ride-share drivers or strangers in general, Kurtz noted). Police used that as a basis to arrest Marquez-Ocasio.
Officers charged Marquez-Ocasio with violating section 796.07(2)(d), Florida Statutes, Kurtz wrote in the filing, which says the offense is committed when someone knowingly transports someone for the purpose of prostitution.
“The reason why they’re really cooked is that the statute is willful,” Kurtz told New Times. “So he has to knowingly do it. It’s not just enough that it happened. Let’s assume he picked her up, even knew her, say he was her friend, and drove her from Fort Lauderdale to the hotel. You have to prove that he knew what she was doing. Or at least you have to make an allegation. They don’t even allege it in the probable cause statement.”
Marquez-Ocasio spent four days at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, four months trying to get his car and other seized property back from police, and has now lost his ability to work as an Uber driver, according to the lawsuit.
When reached for comment by email, a Miami Beach city spokeswoman wrote, “The city of Miami Beach does not comment on pending litigation.” Miami Beach Police did not return New Times’ telephoned or emailed requests for comment.
