‘Lies and twisted information.’ Lawyers say Miami doctor accused of hate crime is innocent.
Defense lawyers for the Miami Springs doctor arrested for attacking a Hispanic man at a Hialeah supermarket say the allegation she committed a hate crime is “simply not true.”
The legal team for Dr. Jennifer Susan Wright, 58, who works as an anesthesiologist at Mount Sinai Medical Center, released its statement Monday, two days after the Herald first reported on her arrest.
“We look forward to discrediting this ugly attack against our client that is filled with lies and twisted information to fit someone else’s political agenda,” Coral Gables attorney Carlos F. Gonzalez, of Alvarez, Gonzalez and Menezes, said in a statement.
The statement was released the same day that Mount Sinai announced Wright, who was contracted to work there, “is no longer responsible for patient care” at the Miami Beach hospital.
“Our top priority is the safety of our patients, visitors, and employees. Law enforcement and other appropriate authorities have our full cooperation in this matter,” President and CEO Gino Santorio said in a statement released Monday.
Santorio added that the details of the arrest “are unacceptable and counter to the culture we foster and the mission that guides us. Since our inception, we have remained dedicated proponents of ensuring equality for all, regardless of our differences, including race, religion, nationality, creed, sexual orientation, and socio-economic status.”
Hialeah police arrested Wright on Friday outside her Miami Springs home on charges of criminal mischief, tampering with a victim and battery with prejudice, a “hate crime” enhancement that upgraded the charge to a felony.
The arrest stemmed from an incident on Jan. 20 at a Publix in Hialeah, when a Hispanic man said Wright got too close to her in line, and she began mumbling curses at him when he asked her to social distance.
A Hialeah police report said that Wright, in the parking lot, accosted him, calling him a “spic,” which is a slur for Hispanics, and said “we should have gotten rid of of you when we could.” She also said “This is not going to be Biden’s America, this is my America” and “we should have burned it all,” the report said.
Biden was inaugurated on the same day as the incident.
The man also alleged that she scratched his car, punched him and tried to stomp on his phone when it fell to the ground, police said. Wright eventually fled in a Jeep Wrangler.
Wright is an ardent supporter of former President Donald Trump, according to her social-media posts. During the Halloween season, she erected a sinister-looking mannequin made to look like Joe Biden outside her Miami Springs home, with a sign that read “Expose the Biden Crime Family.”
