Former Hialeah police officer Rafael Otaño was sentenced to 66 months in state prison for armed kidnapping, a crime of which he was found guilty last August.
Otaño, 28, had been accused of detaining and beating homeless Cuban José Ortega Gutiérrez on December 17 and of covering up the facts, while working as a police officer.
He was tried in August in Miami-Dade Criminal Court and acquitted of assault charges, but the court found him guilty of armed kidnapping, for whichHe could have received a penalty of life imprisonment.
This Wednesday, his lawyers tried to convince the judge to give him a more lenient sentence, but she refused, claiming that she did not believe Otaño had any remorse, but only regretted having been caught.
As reportedLocal 10, the judge called his actions "an extremely egregious betrayal of the public trust," and sentenced him to five years of probation in addition to 66 months behind bars.
Their representatives had previously stated that they would appeal the verdict.
Otaño, who was fired in January by Mayor Esteban Bovo, was free on bail until August, but when he was found guilty of the kidnapping he was arrested again.
On the day of the events he was with fellow former officer Lorenzo Orfila, who has not yet been tried.
According to the indictment, agents went to a bakery after its owners called the police because homeless Cuban José Ortega Gutiérrez was being disruptive, and they detained him.
According to the Prosecutor's Office, they handcuffed Ortega and took him in a patrol car to an isolated area on Northwest 97th Avenue, where they beat him until he was unconscious.
"They said: 'Let's go for a walk.' And the turn was that they took me there to beat me. There"They left me lying there as if I were dead, and they left," said the Cuban. in the trial.
At the hearing, the homeless man Ortega admitted to having consumed alcohol that day, but denied that his alcohol consumption affected his ability to observe and remember events.
After the beating, she was found bloodied by another officer who was walking her dog and gave her first aid.
At the trial, the prosecutor could not prove that the Cuban was beaten by the police, since there was no eyewitness or evidence linking them to the attack. That is why the jury could only declare Otaño guilty of armed kidnapping.
Michael Pizzi, Otaño's lawyer, described the jury's ruling as "outrageous"; He assures that his client is innocent of all charges and that he was not even at the scene when the arrest occurred.
"It is totally absurd, if, as the jury determined, Mr. Otaño never hit him, he is not guilty of assault, he is not guilty of touching this person, he cannot be guilty of kidnapping," he said.
The other defendant, Lorenzo Orfila, was charged with kidnapping, assault and attempted official misconduct.
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