Miami congressional candidate’s campaign manager arrested at fundraiser for Democrat

The operative running the campaign of Miami Democratic congressional candidate Phil Ehr was arrested Tuesday at an event in Wynwood where she was raising money for another Democrat running to claim a congressional seat in the Tampa Bay area.

Vanessa Brito, announced last month as Ehr’s campaign manager, was taken into custody by Miami police just before the scheduled end of a fundraiser for Democrat Sabrina Bousbar at Gramps Wynwood, her arrest report shows. Video of the arrest obtained by the Miami Herald showed Brito being led to a police car outside of Gramps.

Brito was picked up on an outstanding bench warrant related to a petit theft charge for allegedly shoplifting $118.24 in clothes, homeware and other items from a Target department store in Midtown Miami in 2017. The warrant was issued in early 2018 after Brito failed to show up for her court date.

A spokesperson for the Miami Police Department said that the arrest was made in response to an anonymous 911 call reporting Brito’s location and noting that there was an active warrant out for her arrest. Once officers verified the warrant, they asked Brito to step outside, where they explained the situation and took her into custody.

Ehr, a Navy veteran who four years ago unsuccessfully challenged U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, is the lone Democrat running to unseat U.S. Rep. Carlos Gimenez in Florida’s 28th congressional district this year.

Bousbar is among a handful of Democrats running for the nomination to challenge Republican U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, who represents a St. Petersburg-area congressional district.

Phone calls to Ehr and Brito went unanswered on Wednesday. Ehr’s campaign did not respond to the Herald’s request for comment on the arrest.

A spokesperson for Bousbar’s campaign said that neither Bousbar nor her staff were aware of the circumstances surrounding Brito’s arrest. The spokesperson said that while Brito was among the fundraiser’s co-hosts, she did not purchase a ticket to the event, nor had she previously worked with or donated to the campaign.

Brito, a longtime political operative best known for her involvement in the historic recall efforts in 2011 that resulted in the ousted of then-County Mayor Carlos Alvarez and County Commissioner Natacha Seijas, has been paid at least $10,500 by the Ehr campaign, according to campaign finance records. She also worked on former Miami-Dade Community Coucilman Johnny Farias’ unsuccessful 2023 campaign for state House.

A booking report shows that Brito’s $3,500 bond had been posted.

Other issues

The Tuesday night arrest marked Brito’s latest run-in with the law. Months after she was arrested for shoplifting in 2017, she was arrested again in Daytona Beach and charged with trespassing at a Walgreens. She pleaded no contest in that case and was fined $223, according to court records. Adjudication was withheld.

Brito is also facing a lawsuit in Broward County, where she’s accused of pocketing $30,000 from a GoFundMe intended to pay for legal representation in a class action lawsuit to force Florida to restore extended federal unemployment benefits that the state ended before those benefits were set to expire.

The lawsuit was filed by attorney Scott Behren, who said that Brito never paid him for his work on the case. Brito was held in contempt multiple times in that case for failing to comply with the court’s requests for information. A judge ultimately ordered Brito to pay Behren $29,000, as well as another $2,624 in legal fees and court costs.

In a brief phone interview on Wednesday, Behren said that he had still not received any payment from Brito, and was looking for other means to collect the money from her.

Tampa Bay Times reporter Kirby Wilson contributed to this report.