Two Florida officers have been charged and relieved of duty after allegedly kidnapping a homeless man, beating him up, and leaving him in the woods.
Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle announced on Jan. 26 that two former Hialeah Police Department officers, Rafael Otano, 27, and Lorenzo Orfila, 22, had been charged with armed kidnapping and battery.
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Orfila was also charged with official misconduct, and both were relieved of duty and booked into a Miami-Dade County jail. Otano is being held without bond, and Orfila has a bail of $20,000.
Jose Ortega Gutierrez, 50, a homeless man, told investigators he woke up bloodied and bruised on Dec. 17, not knowing where he was. The handcuffs secured on his wrists were gone, he said.
Fernandez Rundle called the case an example of "abuse of power and excessive force."
"We will not allow rogue police officers to abuse their powers and to betray the public that they serve,” she said.
A third person, Ali Amin Saleh, 45, was charged with witness tampering and accused of attempting to cover up the officers’ actions, Fernandez Rundle said.
Otano and Orfila's lawyers both said they believe their clients will be exonerated.
"When you look at the entire case and the credibility of the alleged victim, you’ll see that he’s not credible,” Robert I. Barrar, attorney for Orfila, told the Washington Post.
Court records indicate that on Dec. 17, Otano and Orfila were dispatched at 5:13 p.m. to check out a disturbance at a bakery. The officers found Ortega Gutierrez, handcuffed him, and put him in the back of the car around 5:24 p.m., per court records. An arrest warrant showed that Ortega Gutierrez was told he was being taken to jail for being drunk and disorderly.
Instead, the officers allegedly took him to a dark, secluded wooded area, per the court records. Otano and Orfila did not dispatch or turn on their police-issued body cameras, but the vehicle was tracked using GPS.
Ortega Gutierrez told investigators he was “punched and pushed onto the floor by officers while he was handcuffed.” An off-duty officer who was walking his dog spotted him and called 911 for help.
Officer Yonny Ferrer, who arrived at the scene, allegedly received a call from Orfila prior to arrival asking him not to report the incident “because ‘they’ had dropped off the victim … and had 'roughed him up,'" court documents said.
Ortega Gutierrez, who originally did not want to cooperate with the investigation, provided a sworn, video-recorded statement alleging that the two officers had attacked him.
If convicted, Otano and Orfila could face life in prison.
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Hialeah Police Chief George Fuente said on Thursday that he fired Otano and Orfila due to the promise he made to the community to “be transparent, professional, and responsible” when he was sworn in as chief last year.
“It’s a sad and disappointing day when any officer betrays a badge,” Fuente said. “And it’s extremely disappointing to me it being an officer that wore the Hialeah badge.”