Dem candidate, taxi driver filed competing police reports after wild dispute over payment
Fox News
A Democrat seeking to unseat Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., was once accused of getting into a dispute with a taxi driver that turned physical, according to a police report obtained by Fox News Digital.
Nebraska state Sen. Tony Vargas, a former public school teacher, is running for the House of Representatives in the state’s Omaha-anchored 2nd Congressional district.
The newly uncovered documents describe an incident on the evening of May 10, 2013, when Vargas and his cab driver got into a dispute over payment and ended with the driver taking them both to the police station, where each filed a report. A representative for Vargas’ campaign denied wrongdoing on the candidate’s part.
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According to the driver’s report, Vargas “jumped from the back seat of the van into the front seat,” and that his “left leg hit [the driver] in the head.” The driver also claimed Vargas grabbed him by the shirt collar and “possibly damaged” his laptop computer.
The police officer who took the report said the driver was uninjured, and his laptop was not damaged, according to the document.
Vargas’ report claimed he asked the driver to stop several times but that he instead continued to the police station.
When the driver did stop, according to Vargas’ police report, he drove away quickly, causing Vargas to “hit his head on the ground.” Vargas said he had a headache and was advised to seek medical attention by the officer, the report said.
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Both reports noted that each accused the other of assault, though it does not appear that charges were ultimately filed.
A spokeswoman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, Delanie Bomar, told Fox News Digital, “If Tony Vargas can’t even pay a cab driver without a physical altercation occurring, there’s no shot his violent temper could handle the difference of opinions that occur in Congress. Vargas is extreme and aggressive and radically out of line with commonsense Nebraskans.”
Daniel Gutman, a lawyer representing Vargas’ congressional campaign, told Fox News Digital that the accusations against Vargas are “baseless.”
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“This is a baseless claim contradicted by the Omaha Police Department in their report. As the officer at the scene found, there was ‘absolutely no injury’ to the cab driver or his property and no evidence to support the driver’s claim. To the contrary, police records demonstrate that Senator Vargas was injured by the driver, who sped away while Vargas exited the vehicle, and police advised Senator Vargas to seek medical attention. Sen. Vargas was the clear victim in this encounter,” Gutman said.
The Omaha Police Department did not provide further comment.