MIAMI — Prosecutors on Tuesday released video of the beating of a Republican canvasser in Hialeah, as a judge set a hearing that may feature the victim testifying in open court.
The clip was released in the case against Javier Lopez, who along with a second man is accused of beating up Christopher Monzon as he canvassed for the Republican Party in East Hialeah on Oct. 23. Lopez and Jonathan Casanova are also accused of siccing two German Shepherds on Monzon, who has claimed that the attack was politically motivated in a case that has drawn national media attention.
The surveillance video from a neighbor’s home is grainy and shot from a distance. It shows two cars, belonging to Lopez and Casanova, parked in front of Lopez’s home.
While it’s hard to tell precisely what’s going on, a person that appears to be Monzon is seen falling back onto Lopez’s red car and then is dropped to the ground. At least one other man, apparently Casanova, hovers over the man and punches and kicks appear to fly. Two dogs are also seen on the video — prosecutors say the dogs were released from Casanova’s car.
The two defendants have been charged with aggravated battery and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, for the release of the dogs.
Lopez pleaded not guilty through his attorney and appeared in court on Tuesday as lawyers argued about his possible release on bond.
The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office had asked that Lopez be held without bond for allegedly violating his probation for two earlier felony convictions. But a judge ruled Tuesday that Lopez can’t be held on a violation because, in a clerical error, the Florida Department of Corrections mistakenly sent him a letter in April saying his probation was over.
“The state here bungled this up when the state sent the defendant a letter in error,” Circuit Judge Zachary James said. “The state cannot prove any sort of willful violation.”
But while James said he was willing to grant him a bond, he ordered Lopez held in jail until at least Monday because prosecutors asked for a special “pre-trial detention hearing.” Miami-Dade prosecutor Santiago Aroca said he will play a series of videos and call witnesses.
“I may call the victim,” Aroca said.
Monzon’s testimony would be his first in-depth public comments about the attack — and he would also be subject to cross-examination by Lopez’s defense attorney.
Neither defendant has publicly addressed what led to the altercation, although Lopez’s mother told the Miami Herald that the dust-up had nothing to do with politics and that he had never even voted.
The case was thrust into the national spotlight when U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Miami, tweeted that the attack was politically motivated. Monzon did not initially tell Hialeah police that his alleged attackers mentioned politics, but has since insisted to detectives and publicly that they did — in a speech last weekend, he claimed one of them said “we don’t want you Republicans giving out your campaign propaganda here in our neighborhood.”
Monzon, who is vice president of the Miami Springs Republican Club, has long-standing ties to the white supremacist movement — beliefs he says he has now rejected.
While Casanova has already posted bond and left jail, Lopez has remained in custody because he’d been accused of violating his probation. Lopez was on probation until 2024 for two earlier crimes: stealing a car, and breaking into a Hialeah restaurant to steal beer.
A Florida corrections supervisor, Marie Ropizar, on Monday told the judge that the letter was generated automatically because someone entered the wrong information into the computer system. “The termination letter was a clerical error,” she testified.
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