BY DAVID KIDWELL
dkidwell@herald.com

The promoter of a Cuban dance band whose Miami Arena performance last year prompted protests by anti-Castro exile groups now accuses Miami administrators of trampling her First Amendment free-speech rights by billing her for extra off-duty police.

Debra Ohanian -- a flamboyant South Beach salsa guru who claimed surprise at the firestorm kicked up by the Oct. 9 concert of Grammy-winning salsa band Los Van Van -- filed a civil rights suit in U.S. District Court on Wednesday seeking reimbursement for $39,000 in security fees.

She argues it's unfair to charge her for police protection merely for exercising her First Amendment rights.

``Security is one thing,'' she said. ``But if there is a protest outside, it is not my job as a promoter to provide protection for the public. No other promoter in the country has ever paid these kinds of fees.''

City administrators disagree, saying Ohanian agreed prior to the concert to the same security fees all promoters are charged.

``These people are making a profit, and costs are going to be incurred that are their responsibility,'' said City Manager Donald Warshaw, who as police chief in 1996 unsuccessfully billed another promoter for similar police costs. ``We didn't treat her any differently that we treat anyone else.''

Wednesday's lawsuit infuriated Mayor Joe Carollo, who appeared on Spanish-language radio prior to the concert calling Ohanian ``Havana Debbie'' and Los Van Van ``the official band of Fidel Castro.''

``This is outrageous,'' Carollo said Wednesday. ``She's grasping at straws. If she really felt so strongly, why did she wait six months to sue? Why did she sign that contract?

``She must be making Uncle Fidel really proud with this one,'' said Carollo, who suggested she filed the suit at the dictator's behest. ``They'll probably put up a statue of her in Havana, doing a salsa dance.''

Ohanian called the assertion of collusion with Castro ``ridiculous'' and said that when she agreed to pay the $39,000 for extra police and barricades outside the Miami Arena, she also ``gave them a letter stating that it was under duress. It was either pay the money or cancel the concert.''

Ohanian fumed that radio appearances by Carollo and commissioners Thomas Regalado and Joe Sanchez were designed to keep people away from the concert.

``These people went on the radio and incited people to protest this concert, then they turn around and charge me for it when they do,'' Ohanian said. ``People didn't come because they were scared a bomb was going to go off or something.''

She said she made no money because of the low ticket sales, and the $39,000 fee help put her in the red.

Regalado said Tuesday Ohanian filed suit ``for another five minutes of prime time. She agreed to it and now she's saying she wants her money back? I don't think so. She knew from the beginning what she was doing was divisive and it was harmful to the stability of this community.''

Ohanian's attorney, Bruce Rogow, said the law is clear and that under no circumstances can anyone be charged for police protection for exercising their First Amendment rights. The U.S. Supreme Court has come down hard against such fees in the past, but under different circumstances.

In Forsythe County, Georgia, vs. the white supremacist Nationalist Movement, the high court struck down in 1992 a county ordinance charging a $1,000-per-day fee for ``maintenance of public order.''

The idea is that unpopular speech should not be more expensive merely because it is unpopular.

The opinion does not address whether a for-profit concert by a contemporary salsa band whose lyrics are not the issue falls within a First Amendment category contemplated by the Supreme Court.

In 1996, city attorneys apparently felt that it did.

Warshaw and city administrators canceled a similar charge against promoter Rolando Mendoza whose production by Cuban pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba was met with exile protests outside the Gusman Center for the Performing Arts.

Rubalcaba was sent a bill for $7,500 by Warshaw for the 30 extra police officers, but the city backed off after the American Civil Liberties Union took up the case on First Amendment grounds.