Florida Woman Faces Felony for Criticizing Police Incompetence

After a confrontational encounter with police, a Miami woman has been charged with four misdemeanors and a felony, 7News Miami reports.

While Kristy Hernandez and other parents were attempting to take their children to the Ben Sheppard Elementary School, police officer Ismael Castilla had something else in mind. Executing a traffic stop, Castilla decided it would be appropriate to block the school’s exit for over 20 minutes, preventing parents from coming and going.

Hernandez is a former nurse who left her job to care for her autistic son, Brandon.

Not amused by the holdup, Hernandez started filming the officer with a dash-mounted camera in her car, letting him know how much he was inconveniencing the line of cars waiting to leave the school. “The students are late to school because of you,” Hernandez can be heard saying in the footage. “I’m going to be sending this to your supervisor, by the way, sir.”

A moment later, Hernandez is heard asking “What are you stopping me for? You’re blocking traffic.” Apparently Castilla did not appreciate the advice.

Hernandez promptly pulled over and was ticketed for having an obstructed license plate—the first in a series of heinous crimes she committed that day, with four more to follow.

“I’ve never been on the wrong side of the law, so it’s scary for me,” Hernandez told 7News Miami.

In addition to the license plate, officer Castilla cited her for not providing vehicle registration and proof of insurance, though Hernandez insists both were in the car. The dash-cam was a problem, too, earning Hernandez another, fourth, ticket.

“It’s a small dash-cam,” Hernandez said. “[The officer] said it was obstructing my view.”

Dismal as the situation already was, it got much worse. The fifth charge would be much more serious: a felony.

Outrageously, Hernandez was charged with fleeing and eluding a police officer after she pulled a few feet off the road in order to make room for Castilla’s car. She wasn’t as content to block the road and hold up countless commuters trying to go about their day, in stark contrast to the tax-funded “public servant” Castilla.

When a second officer arrived on the scene, Hernandez tried to reason with him.

“Everyone was beeping at him, and all because I said, ‘You are not doing your job properly,’ he signaled me out,” Hernandez explained to the officer. It made no difference, the charges stuck.

Miami-Dade Schools Police told 7News Miami that “If [Hernandez] believes she is innocent of the citations, she has the right to address her concerns during the judicial process.” Surely this will be of great comfort to the mother of two, who now faces a potentially life-ruining legal battle in court.

On the dash-cam footage Hernandez can be heard saying to her son that “Mommy learned her lesson. Keep quiet,” an unfortunate takeaway from the situation. In reality, Hernandez had every right, legally and ethically, to do what she did, a fact she later acknowledged.

“What you’re doing is really not protecting and serving,” she said of the officer. “You are just protecting and serving yourself because someone caught you doing something wrong.”