A prominent Hialeah political activist is speaking out and taking responsibility after being arrested in an undercover prostitution sting.<\/p>\n
Investigators said Ernesto Martin is facing a misdemeanor after responding to an online ad for escort services on Thursday afternoon. According to the arrest report, he made a verbal agreement to pay for sex and was directed to a prearranged meeting location.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, something that maybe seemed as normal doesn’t mean that it’s legal,” Martin said in an interview with NBC6.<\/p>\n
Detectives said Martin handed an undercover officer $60 before he was taken into custody.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy shame is reserved for my family, and those who are close to me, but you know the rest is my private life, and my intimacy is of no one’s importance,” he said.<\/p>\n
After his arrest, Martin posted a message on Instagram in Spanish, writing in part: \u201cI am a human being with strengths and flaws. I can promise you I will always face things head-on, accept the consequences of my actions, and work every day to become a better man.\u201d<\/p>\n
Martin has been active in Hialeah politics and community campaigns, including working alongside Hialeah Mayor Bryan Calvo.<\/p>\n
But he said this was a personal decision, and no one else should be blamed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’ve always criticized. You know, everyone who does things the wrong way, and in this case, now it was me,” Martin said.<\/p>\n
Martin did not want to discuss the details of the case, but said he is taking accountability for his actions while the judicial system plays out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A prominent Hialeah political activist is speaking out and taking responsibility after being arrested in an undercover prostitution…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":332641,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124,2033],"class_list":["post-332640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-only-on-6"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=332640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332640\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/332641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}