Two former south Florida police officers handcuffed a homeless man last month and drove him to an isolated area where they beat him unconscious, prosecutors alleged Thursday.
According to Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle, Hialeah city officers Rafael Otano and Lorenzo Ofila, who have since been fired, were responding to a disturbance at a bakery shortly after 5 p.m. on Dec. 17, when they encountered 50-year-old Jose Ortega Gutierrez, a homeless man who often roamed the area and was familiar to the officers.
Ofila, 22, allegedly handcuffed Ortega Gutierrez and placed him in the back of his marked police car, said Fernandez Rundle and claimed surveillance footage from the area provided no evidence that supported detaining him
Instead of booking Ortega Gutierrez into the local jail, Ofila and Otano, 27, allegedly drove him six miles, with their emergency lights flashing, to "an isolated and dark location, against his will," Fernandez Rundle said at a news conference.
Once there, the officers allegedly threw Gutierrez, who was still handcuffed, to the ground and beat him, she said, noting that Gutierrez later testified he woke up alone, un-handcuffed, and bleeding from the head.
It just amazes me when I hear folks saying, "oh this only happens every blue moon".
According to Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle, Hialeah city officers Rafael Otano and Lorenzo Ofila, who have since been fired, were responding to a disturbance at a bakery shortly after 5 p.m. on Dec. 17, when they encountered 50-year-old Jose Ortega Gutierrez, a homeless man who often roamed the area and was familiar to the officers.
Ofila, 22, allegedly handcuffed Ortega Gutierrez and placed him in the back of his marked police car, said Fernandez Rundle and claimed surveillance footage from the area provided no evidence that supported detaining him
Instead of booking Ortega Gutierrez into the local jail, Ofila and Otano, 27, allegedly drove him six miles, with their emergency lights flashing, to "an isolated and dark location, against his will," Fernandez Rundle said at a news conference.
Once there, the officers allegedly threw Gutierrez, who was still handcuffed, to the ground and beat him, she said, noting that Gutierrez later testified he woke up alone, un-handcuffed, and bleeding from the head.
It just amazes me when I hear folks saying, "oh this only happens every blue moon".
