After woman from viral traffic stop clip leaves jail, cops cuff her driver for same offense
A short time after Cecilia Selina Mercado left jail Wednesday after being seen in a viral video being arrested by Sunny Isles Beach police on accusations that she drove a car with fake diplomatic license plates, police pulled over the car she was in and arrested its driver — for the same thing.
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After woman from viral traffic stop clip leaves jail, cops cuff her driver for same offense
Police: Woman picked up in car with fake diplomatic plates, same thing she was jailed for
Bridgette Matter, Reporter
Rosh Lowe, Reporter
Chris Gothner, Digital Journalist
Published: March 13, 2024 at 5:11 PM
Updated: March 13, 2024 at 11:13 PM
SUNNY ISLES BEACH, Fla. – A short time after Cecilia Selina Mercado left jail Wednesday after being seen in a viral video being arrested by Sunny Isles Beach police on accusations that she drove a car with fake diplomatic license plates, police pulled over the car she was in and arrested its driver — for the same thing.
Mercado — a 32-year-old Latin singer known as Sessi — had been pulled over Tuesday on Sunny Isles Boulevard, driving an Audi with a counterfeit license plate that falsely claimed Mercado was a “diplomat” and an “ambassador at large,” police said. In a video recorded during the traffic stop, officers yank Mercado out of the car after a back-and-forth in which her boyfriend argues Mercado is “not a United States citizen.”
Mercado, who was born in the Bronx, New York, left the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center in a Maybach sedan with what police say were yet another set of phony diplomatic plates.
When Mercado, her boyfriend and the driver returned to Sunny Isles Beach from TGK, police were there waiting. They busted the Maybach’s window open after the driver, whose name hasn’t been released, refused to comply.
Officers took him to the ground and arrested him.
“They tried to kill me,” he told Local 10 News while being led away in handcuffs. “Están locos.”
Video of Mercado’s arrest:
The driver did not have a valid driver’s license, police said; officers pulled multiple guns out of the car and impounded the vehicle.
“They had guns to the car; I just got out of jail,” Mercado said after her driver was arrested. “This is not funny. This is messed up.”
Mercado has yet to explain why she claims diplomatic immunity. In the viral video, she’s seen handing police a passport rather than a driver’s license.
Local 10 Crime Specialist Bridgette Matter probed her on the subject as she walked out of TGK Wednesday.
“Weren’t you born in the Bronx?” Matter asked.
“I was born in the Bronx, New York,” Mercado replied.
After Matter asked Mercado if she denounced her U.S. citizenship, Mercado replied that she didn’t.
“I am an American state national,” she said.
Authorities confiscate fake diplomatic plate after woman's return from jail. (WPLG)
Regarding the tag she was pulled over for having, Mercado said, “They are not fake. They are completely registered to my private trust and my private vehicle which, by law, I am allowed to have a vehicle under a trust.”
She later said, following her driver’s arrest, “It’s not fraudulent plates, it’s a lie,” claiming the plates are registered to the “department of transportation” and the U.S. Department of State.
Police said none of that is true; in fact, they said the entire investigation is ongoing.
Mercado, charged with having a counterfeit registration, license plate or sticker on a motor vehicle, got out of TGK on a $2,500 bond.
Original fake license plate:
Fake diplomatic license plate (SIBPD)
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but spelled correctly
nikka what???!!
