MIAMI – With the protection and the prosecution resting, it was once transparent on Monday afternoon {that a} jury will soon start deliberating in the case of a former Hialeah officer accused of police brutality.
The protection centered at the alleged unreliability of the GPS knowledge that investigators used to estimate the whereabouts of Officer Rafael Otano on Dec. 17.
The prosecution counted on a era knowledge analyst who reported that Otano’s mobile phone knowledge verified the GPS knowledge used all through the investigation.
Sgt. Javier Barrios, Detective Hilda Nubia Reyes, and Officer Jeffrey Abascal testified on Thursday. Abascal stated he and Otano had been assistant officials once they spoke back to Los Tres Conejitos bakery, at 1912 W 60 St., on Dec. 17, in Hialeah.
Abascal stated there was once a file of an “intoxicated male that was bothering customers” and Officer Lorenzo Orfila, the main officer, discovered the suspect, Jose Ortega-Gutierrez, in a liquor retailer in the similar strip mall because the bakery.
Abascal stated he searched Ortega-Gutierrez, grabbed his pockets, and gave it to Orfila earlier than following the patrol automobile with Orfila, Otano, and the suspect. Abascal stated he determined to prevent following the patrol automobile at West 17 Court and 68 Street.
“There was a lot of policies violated already … I just felt that something was wrong, to be honest.”
Ortega-Gutierrez, who additionally testified all through the trial, accused Otano and Orfila of taking him to a far flung space of Miami-Dade County to beat him up and go away him there injured.
Attorney Michael Pizzi, who’s representing Otano, puzzled Ortega-Gutierrez, who stated he continuously drank beer and two bottles of vodka, and were given into fights to protect himself as a result of he had educated as a certified boxer when he was once more youthful in Cuba.
“I am an alcoholic and I don’t deny it,” Ortega-Gutierrez stated in Spanish with the lend a hand of a court-appointed translator.
Ortega-Gutierrez was once 50 years outdated when a Miami-Dade police officer reported discovering him injured, and Ortega-Gutierrez informed him Hialeah police officials had been to blame. Detectives with inside affairs investigated the file, and prosecutors charged Otano and Orfila with armed kidnapping and battery.
“Nobody is above the law — including the defendant,” Assistant State Attorney Shawn Albuhoff stated about Otano all through his opening remark on Aug. 21 in court docket.
Ali Amin Saleh, a non-public investigator, later presented Ortega-Gutierrez cash so he wouldn’t file the thrashing, in accordance to prosecutors. Juan Prietocofino, a notary, was once accused of fraud for notarizing a sworn statement Saleh allegedly requested Ortega-Gutierrez to signal.
The detectives’ findings induced Hialeah Mayor Esteban Bovo Jr. and Hialeah Police Chief George Fuente to terminate Otano and Ofila, who surrendered to face fees on Jan. 26.
Orfila may be going through a price of legitimate misconduct, and Saleh is going through a price of witness tampering. Circuit Judge Robert Watson set Orfila’s bond at $20,000 and Otano’s bond at $10,000 on Feb. 13, and ordered area arrest.
In Florida, an armed kidnapping price is a first-degree prison punishable through up to existence in jail, or up to existence on probation and up to $15,000 in fines. Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Andrea R. Wolfson is presiding over Otano’s trial.
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