HispanicBusiness

Miami police arrested a Secret Service officer after he was found passed out and apparently drunk on a busy Brickell intersection, hours after President Barack Obama passed through for a quick campaign stop at the University of Miami.

A Miami police arrest affidavit described agent Aaron Francis Engler as lying on the ground near Southwest Seventh Street and Brickell Avenue around 7 a.m.

An officer asked him to get up. Engler refused, according to the affidavit.

There was a "strong odor of [an] alcoholic beverage emitting from his breath," police said.

He had bloodshot eyes and slurred speech. The officer had to help Engler stand to his feet before he started flailing his arms. While the officer began searching Engler to handcuff him, the agent struck the officer in the face and chin.

An additional police unit was called to help restrain the man as he continued to struggle before he was handcuffed, police said.

Engler was arrested on two misdemeanor counts of disorderly intoxication and resisting arrest. Miami police said Engler has been released to members of the Secret Service's Miami field office.

The Secret Service in Washington said the case will be turned over to the agency's Office of Professional Responsibility.

A law enforcement official said Engler was assigned to the agency's uniformed division and was in Miami in a support role while the president was visiting. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the officer's job with the agency.

Obama was in Miami Thursday for a campaign rally at the University of Miami and an evening fundraiser.

This isn't the first time misbehaving Secret Service agents have been in the news in the past few months. Several agents resigned earlier this year after they were caught in April in a prostitution scandal in Colombia when the president was attending the Summit of the Americas. A handful were implicated in the scandal and faced administrative action.

This report was supplemented by information from the Associated Press.

___