City Slugger 

An on-duty Miami Beach city employee beat a resident unconscious

By Ben Torter

Alexios Campos learned not to question Miami Beach city employees. Photo courtesy of Miami Beach Police

Alexios Campos is a soft-spoken man who is small in stature, but big on faith.

Campos doesn’t accompany his family when they worship at the Jehovah’s Witness Kingdom Hall in Miami Beach three times a week because it’s not easy for him. He walks with a cane. Rheumatoid arthritis has attacked the joints in his hands and knees and elbows and hips.

Instead, he participates in Bible studies and other religious classes via speakerphone from the living room of the little North Beach apartment that he shares with his wife and three children.

Miami Beach employee Rogers Lee, shown here after the fight, has anger management issues. Photo courtesy of Miami Beach Police

“The husband, as you know, has illnesses, so he hasn’t been to the Kingdom Hall for quite some time,” said Brad Powell, an elder at the church. “But I spend a lot of time with his wife and children.”

So when Campos was beaten unconscious by a Miami Beach sanitation worker in August, he found it hard to believe that police named him the suspect and his attacker the victim in police reports. Rogers Lee, the winner by a knockout, still works for the city.

Last week, the Camposes showed up at the Miami Beach Commission meeting with their attorney, Stuart Reed, to publicly ask the city to reopen the case. They’re seeking unspecified damages.

“We’re here to ask the commission and the city manager to make sure that the police and the city administration will properly investigate an incident that sent Mr. Campos to the emergency room at the Mount Sinai Hospital with a shattered nose, and with injuries to his spine, because a Miami Beach sanitation worker smashed him in the face and beat him on the ground until he was unconscious,” Reed told commissioners.

However, City Attorney Jose Smith advised the commission to stay out of it.

“My suggestion to you is to not engage in any discussion,” Smith said. “This is not the forum to be having this conversation. If Mr. Reed wants to call my office and meet with me, I’ll be happy to meet with him. But I would suggest you do not respond to anything that he says,” Smith said.

Smith and City Manager Jorge Gonzalez promised to conduct a thorough investigation.

The story of what happened the day Campos was beaten up is different depending on who tells it. Yet, two things are clear: Campos got his ass kicked by an on-duty Miami Beach employee, and the fight began over a couch that didn’t belong to Campos but had been dumped on the sidewalk in front of his apartment.

Alexios Campos need his cane just to pose for this photo, but a Miami Beach police report called him the aggressor after a city sanitation worker knocked him unconscious. Photo by Richard M. Brooks

According to interviews and police reports, Lee knocked on the Camposes’ door around noon on Aug. 20 to ask about an abandoned couch outside of the family’s Byron Avenue apartment. Wearing a bright orange reflective vest as part of his work uniform, Lee asked Campos’ wife, Cathelina, if she was the building manager and whether or not the couch belonged to her. The Camposes don’t manage the apartment complex, though one might think they do since they live in a small detached structure behind the main building. She told him they didn’t know anything about the illegally dumped couch.

Moments later, a fight broke out between the two men. Campos suffered a broken nose, a cut on his forehead, and claims to have been momentarily unconscious. When police arrived, they found Lee with a small cut on his lip, broken eyeglasses and scrapes on his knuckles.

The rest of the story is sketchy.

Police recorded two versions of the story on the day of the fight. Lee, who was described as the victim in the report, told them he was merely defending himself.

“[Lee] stated that he approached [Campos] and asked if he was the building manager and asked if he knew anything about a couch that was discarded on the sidewalk in front of the building,” Miami Beach Police wrote in the report. “[Lee] stated at that time [Campos] became verbally abusive towards him, at one point calling him a ‘nigger.’ [Lee] stated [Campos] then exited his residence and began approaching him in an aggressive manner, punching him in the lip. [Lee] stated that [Campos] continued his aggressiveness towards him thus forcing him to defend himself.”

The Camposes told police an entirely different story.

“Upon interviewing, he [Campos] stated that [Lee] was the initial aggressor by banging on his door,” police wrote. “[Campos] stated that upon the initial encounter, [Lee] began to ‘badmouth’ him and demanded that the couch be removed. [Campos] stated that when he refused to remove the couch, [Lee] began shoving him, thus leading to the physical encounter. When I attempted to interview [Campos’] wife, [Campos] stated to her, ‘Don’t say anything, call the attorney.’”

Cathelina Campos and their 10-year-old son Philip said Campos never called Lee the n-word or did anything to provoke him.

“The city worker put his hand on me, and my husband said to him, ‘Get your hand off my wife,’” Cathelina said. That’s when Lee allegedly sucker-punched her husband in the face, causing his knees to buckle.

“My husband was on the ground and he kept hitting my husband,” Cathelina said.

Campos denied calling the lawyer as part of a scheme to make a quick buck off the city.

He said he was afraid because police treated him unfairly and took Lee’s account as gospel. He also suspects that detectives did a shoddy investigation in order to protect a fellow city worker.

Still, city records indicate that Lee, a former Army combat engineer, has a history of violence, which may have played a role in the city’s decision to deny him employment the first time he applied in 2005.

On July 23, 2005, Lee was driving a Ford pickup in South Beach with his girlfriend Andrea Salsberry and their infant son when the couple began arguing.

“Lee accused Salsberry of having a boyfriend, then punched her in the nose, and [grabbed] a necklace off of her neck,” according to the police report. “[Lee] then reached over her, opened her door, and pushed her out of the vehicle. [Lee] then fled, leaving Salsberry stranded.”

He was arrested and charged with simple domestic battery. The next day, the court ordered Lee to stay away from Salsberry. Documents show that Lee attended anger management classes, and the case was closed on Feb. 2, 2006.

Seven months later, in September 2006, Lee reapplied for a job with the city of Miami Beach and was hired. Salsberry, the woman Lee reportedly beat up, is listed as one of Lee’s emergency contacts. They share the same address.

Then, nearly three months after the city hired him, Lee allegedly attacked Campos.

“I don’t have anything to say,” Lee told the SunPost on the telephone last week before hanging up.

Despite a request, police did not release the incident file in time for this story. However, the city did provide Lee’s personnel file, which confirms his previous arrest record and shows he’s still employed in the sanitation department.

“The city is investigating the allegations,” he said, “and will take whatever actions are appropriate.” 

Comments? E-mail ben@miamisunpost.com