‘Really disturbing’: Arrest of young activist brings turmoil to Surfside before election

On Tuesday evening, about 50 people gathered outside Surfside Town Hall, chanting and banging drums to demand “justice” for Joshua Epstein, an 18-year-old activist arrested earlier this month and charged with felony battery on an elected official for allegedly pushing Vice Mayor Jeff Rose after a Feb. 28 candidate forum.

The arrest of Epstein, the son of former town commissioner Eliana Salzhauer, has set off a firestorm in the days before a March 19 election for mayor and commission in the eight-block beach town.

Nearly three years removed from the collapse of Champlain Towers South that killed 98 people and shook the town to its core, Surfside is deeply divided, with a political scene that seems to be messier than ever before.

At a Town Commission meeting that followed the rally Tuesday, nearly two dozen speakers lambasted Rose for going to the police about the alleged incident with Epstein, saying that even if Rose was pushed, he should not have filed a report against a teenage political opponent. Others criticized police for making an arrest without speaking to several witnesses who claimed that Epstein never pushed the vice mayor.

Police arrested Epstein after Rose and an IT contractor for the town told police that the push did occur. Town officials have said there is no video of the incident, which took place inside commission chambers at Town Hall moments after a contentious candidate forum concluded. Rose told police on the night of the incident that he did not want to pursue charges but reversed course the next day, according to a supplemental police report issued this week.

Tuesday’s meeting featured the types of theatrics that have become common in Surfside politics, including spats involving well-known players like Salzhauer — who donned an orange jumpsuit to protest her son’s arrest — and former Mayor Charles Burkett, a one-time political enemy of Salzhauer who has now become her unlikely ally as he runs against Mayor Shlomo Danzinger, who unseated Burkett two years ago.

But also among the speakers at Town Hall were residents who said they rarely attend commission meetings but felt compelled to speak because they were so shaken by Epstein’s arrest — a sign of the incident’s outsize impact on the community.

“It’s really disturbing what happened,” resident Joanna Katz said during a public comment period. “I don’t know how we got here.”

Salzhauer said her son spent 27 hours in county jail without medication he needed before he was released.

“You have brought shame on this entire town,” Salzhauer told Rose on Tuesday. “A family man doesn’t lock up another child with false accusations.”

Speaking from the dais, Rose, who owns a construction company, said he would not comment on the details of what happened. Epstein’s case remains pending in Miami-Dade Circuit Court with a hearing set for April 1.

“Ultimately, professionals decided to make an arrest after careful consideration,” said Rose, who did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

Danzinger, the current mayor and an ally of Rose, talked about the situation in more detail.

He suggested inappropriate behavior by town activists in the past — including Salzhauer, who held up her middle fingers at Burkett during multiple town meetings when she was in office — had led to the present-day chaos.

Epstein has joined his mother as a vocal critic of Danzinger, demanding, among other things, that the mayor release receipts from an October 2022 trip he took to Dubai to meet with the developer of luxury condos planned at the Champlain Towers South collapse site. Several town officials and victims’ family members said they were unaware of the Dubai visit until it was reported by the Miami Herald.

Danzinger said during Tuesday’s meeting that Epstein and his parents should be held accountable for the alleged incident with Rose.

“If the allegations are accurate, are we okay with people now physically assaulting elected officials in Town Hall?” Danzinger said. “I personally teach my kids better. They don’t act in that manner, and I think the parents need to start taking some responsibility.”

The statement was one of several by Danzinger on Tuesday that elicited groans and shouting from residents inside a packed commission chamber.

During an argument about whether Epstein’s lawyer should be granted extended time to address the commission, Danzinger chastised the body’s two female commissioners, Marianne Meischeid and Nelly Velasquez, for speaking over him as they pressed for the additional time to be granted.

“If you ladies are finished screaming, we have a motion,” the mayor said.

As the meeting was wrapping up, Meischeid said she wanted to make a closing statement at her final commission meeting. Meischeid is not seeking re-election, citing the toxic politics at Town Hall as her reason.

Earlier in the meeting, Meischeid had sought to formally censure Rose for his role in the arrest of Epstein. But a motion to add it to the agenda failed 3-2, with Meischeid and Velasquez in favor. Danzinger, Rose and Commissioner Fred Landsman voted against it.

“I wish we could all follow the golden rule,” Meischeid said.

Danzinger got the last word before adjourning the meeting. “For the record, the golden rule is, ‘He who has the gold makes the rule,’” he said.

Danzinger did not respond to a request for comment.

A ‘thorough’ investigation?

In a March 4 statement, the town of Surfside said police conducted a “thorough” investigation and consulted with the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office before arresting Epstein. On Tuesday, Police Chief Antonio Marciante defended the arrest in an interview with WPLG, saying “every arrest we make is based on probable cause.” Marciante was not available for an interview Friday, according to town officials.

Salzhauer said that, on the night of the Feb. 28 candidate forum, it was her son who first went to police to flag Rose’s behavior after the event, saying he felt intimidated.

Epstein later posted a video on social media that showed an angry Rose pointing a finger at him.

“Keep pushing me, Josh,” Rose says. “You already pushed me once, and it’s on camera.”

“I haven’t touched you,” Epstein responds. “If I did, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to. I didn’t push you, though.”

Salzhauer said she believes Rose’s subsequent decision to file a police report was a “retaliatory claim.”

Police obtained a sworn written statement from Rose, who said Epstein “pushed me away on my right shoulder” as Rose was confronting another resident who “got in the face” of Rose’s mother. Rose said he lost his balance after Epstein pushed him and fell into Rose’s sister-in-law and another resident.

A contractor who does IT work for the town, Jose Feliz, told police he witnessed Epstein pushing Rose “in the chest area with both hands,” according to a police report. Epstein’s video, which was filmed moments after the alleged physical altercation, shows Feliz standing in between Rose and Epstein as the vice mayor walked toward the young activist.

When Rose filed his sworn statement with police, he also signed a non-prosecution form indicating he did not want to press charges, according to records obtained by local activists and shared with the Herald. Salzhauer is calling for an independent investigation to find out what led Rose to change course and pursue charges the following day.

“We want accountability in Town Hall and an independent investigation now,” she said.

Epstein was arrested Friday, March 1, two days after the incident, as he was heading from his home in Surfside to a town pool to swim laps.

After his arrest, four people who attended the Feb. 28 candidate forum filed witness statements with police saying they never saw Epstein push Rose. Salzhauer said police knew about those witnesses but declined to interview them during their investigation.

The supplemental police report filed Thursday says Salzhauer shared a witness list with police about 20 minutes before Epstein was arrested.

The incident quickly rippled across the town of about 5,000 residents.

On March 10, an email went out to residents using the logo of The Shul, a large Orthodox synagogue in Surfside, purportedly on behalf of 86 members who said they condemned Epstein’s arrest and urged voters not to support Rose and Danzinger. Less than two hours later, another email clarified that the group did not represent The Shul as an institution and had “erroneously” used its logo.

The Shul’s president, Steve Dunn, spoke during Tuesday’s meeting to say the email was “highly objectionable” and that the synagogue was “weighing its legal options to make sure something like this never happens again.”

“To use the arrest of a young man to advance a political agenda is shameful,” he said.

‘Put your hand on your heart’

Rose, Danzinger and their allies have sought to pin blame on their detractors for the town’s toxic political culture.

An email earlier this week from an anonymous group called Surfside Tomorrow revealed police body camera footage of Velasquez, the commissioner, at Town Hall speaking with Feliz, the contractor who said he witnessed Epstein pushing the vice mayor.

In the video, Velasquez tells Feliz in Spanish to remember that he has children and that “God does not forget things.” She says she could tell Feliz’s employer that he is saying things that aren’t true “because what you are doing is wrong.”

“Put your hand on your heart,” Velasquez says. “You are ending a boy’s life. And you didn’t see anything.”

Velasquez told the Miami Herald on Wednesday that she didn’t approach Feliz to try to intimidate him.

“I didn’t go over there to harass him or to threaten him in any way,” she said. “I just went to tell him to put his hand on his heart and think about the things that he’s doing.”

Reached for comment Thursday, Feliz handed his phone to Town Manager Hector Gomez, who asked a Herald reporter to direct any inquiries to him and the town’s communications director, Frank Trigueros.

“At this time, Town employees do not wish to provide direct statements to the media,” Trigueros said in an email.

Election coming up

With commotion over the arrest looming, early voting began March 4 for Danzinger or Burkett for mayor.

There are also 10 commission candidates vying for four seats. Current commissioners Rose, Velasquez and Landsman are on the ballot.

Surfside election officials are paid an annual salary of $1.

Danzinger, 44, was elected in March 2022 as the town’s first Orthodox Jewish mayor, and has faced his share of controversy since taking office less than a year after the Champlain Towers South collapse.

He convened a committee of victims’ family members to discuss the creation of a memorial on or near the collapse site but sparred at times with some of its members who called for more transparency in the process.

Danzinger has said his trip to Dubai to meet with the site’s developer was an attempt to advocate for a memorial, and he touts on his campaign website that he “negotiated with [the] developer to obtain private land to be incorporated into [the] 88th Street memorial park at the request of family members.”

In 2022, Danzinger faced heat for not supporting the flying of a Pride flag at the town’s community center after the flag had been flown there the year before.

In August, he faced backlash after a commission meeting where, as he was urging a commissioner, Velasquez, to stop interrupting him, the mayor said: “Does anybody know how to speak Spanish to tell it to her? Because I’ve said it like four times.”

Velasquez is bilingual and speaks fluent English. Danzinger initially doubled down but apologized for the remark at the next meeting.

Burkett, 63, was also a controversial figure during his most recent stint in office. He was first elected mayor in 2006 and reelected in 2008, then successfully ran for mayor again in 2020.

Burkett became a familiar face after the condo collapse, making frequent local and national media appearances and sometimes clashing with county officials over the town’s lack of access to the property, which was considered a crime scene and therefore sealed off. As the town sought answers about why the building collapsed, Burkett floated a conspiracy theory that had been widely debunked.

He also faced scrutiny during his time in office for his handling of a property he owns in Miami Beach, where tenants were forced to move out because of poor conditions.

In one interaction with a female police officer that made headlines, Burkett said he “had a crush” on her and that she was “the best looking police officer we’ve ever had.”

Salzhauer, a commissioner at the time, was his most vocal critic.

In 2020, she gave Burkett the middle finger during a virtual meeting after he muted her microphone while he was arguing that Christians should be included in an anti-hate resolution as targets of discrimination during the COVID pandemic. Salzhauer flipped Burkett the double bird after he accused her of harboring “apparent anti-Christian zeal.”

But political circumstances have since changed. Salzhauer now wants Danzinger out of office enough that she’s supporting Burkett, while Burkett is running with a slate of four commission candidates, including Velasquez and former Vice Mayor Tina Paul, who say it’s time to shake up Town Hall and resist efforts to upzone a town with a history of pushing back against development.

Burkett has pointed to a PAC supporting Danzinger, One Surfside, as evidence that outside forces are trying to influence the town. The group is led by Aaron Nevins — a political operative best known for receiving 2016 election data from an alleged Russian hacker — and received $20,000 from a different committee, Floridians Together for Change, chaired by a legislative aide to Florida Rep. Fabian Basabe.

In an email to residents this past weekend, Burkett said he will ensure “everyone is heard, everyone is respected, and everyone is treated fairly.”

“Trust and integrity are not negotiable,” he said. “Neither is the future of our beautiful town.”