August 4, 200422 yr ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) -- A police video captured Tampa Bay Devil Rays owner Vince Naimoli waving his arms and yelling at an officer after Naimoli's wife was stopped for running a red light near Tropicana Field. A police report said Naimoli's wife, Lenda, was following her husband's car in a silver Mercedes after the Devil Rays' game Saturday night. Naimoli drove his white Mercedes through a yellow light, but his wife didn't make it before the light turned red, the report said. St. Petersburg Officer Scott Newell pulled over Lenda Naimoli's car; her husband pulled over and approached the officer. "Do you know who I am?" Newell said Naimoli yelled at him. "I'm Vincent Joseph Naimoli, owner of the Devil Rays. That's my wife! She was following me!" The 66-year-old Naimoli also threatened to call the police chief and other city officials. Newell said he had to order Naimoli to return to his car three times before he complied. "He was red-faced and yelling," Newell wrote in the report. A video camera mounted in Newell's cruiser recorded the incident without audio. Newell issued Lenda Naimoli, 60, a $114.50 ticket for running a red light. As Newell spoke to Lenda Naimoli, her husband continued to "yell that she did not have to accept the citation and that he would take care of it," the report said. In a statement released by the team, Naimoli said he didn't think at the time of the traffic stop that his wife had run the light. "I only left my vehicle out of concern for her, and I did so in what was clearly a non-threatening manner with my arms raised," Naimoli said in the statement. "Now that I've had a chance to see the video, it is clear a traffic violation was committed," he said. "We will not contest the ticket. The fine will be paid."
August 4, 200422 yr :lol Every Rays fan I know (one, their only seson ticket holder and huge Don Mattingly fan) hates him.
August 6, 200422 yr So because this moron owns a baseball team, he is above the law? What a joke. I'm glad this came out in the press, now everyone will know how much of an idiot he is. DurableTear, have their been any previous incidents involving the D-Rays owner to make people hate him?
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