FL - Former police chief pleads guilty to framing men in racially tinged cases, Sept. 2018

[EuTuCroquet?]

Former police chief in Florida pleads guilty to framing men in racially tinged cases

Five years ago, Biscayne Park Police Chief Raimundo Atesiano bragged to the town’s leaders about his department’s exceptional 100 percent clearance rate on burglaries in the tree-lined suburb north of Miami.

On Friday, however, Atesiano admitted his own criminal behavior was behind the boast to the village commission: He acknowledged at his plea hearing in Miami federal court that he directed three of his police officers to pin a series of unsolved home and vehicle break-ins on three innocent men to perfect the force’s property crimes record.

Atesiano, 52, pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge of depriving the three suspects of their civil rights because he and the officers framed them. Although race was not a factor in the federal case against the former police chief, the three wrongly arrested men are black.​

 

[EuTuCroquet?]

Miami Man Sues After Cops Framed Him for Theft, Got Him Deported to Haiti

Clarens Desrouleaux spent five years in prison for burglary before he was deported to Haiti last year. The problem is that he never stole anything from anyone. Desrouleaux was, in fact, a victim of a heinous scheme by former Biscayne Park Police Chief Raimundo Atesiano in which he told his cops to frame black residents for burglaries in order to make his department seem competent.

Last week, Atesiano pleaded guilty to the scheme. And now Desrouleaux is suing the department for false imprisonment and civil rights violations after Biscayne Park cops ruined his life.

Desrouleaux, who is now 41, "is still in Haiti and is not able to return to the United States of America as a result of his bogus arrest and conviction perpetrated by the defendants in this case," the suit reads.

In August, state prosecutors vacated Desrouleaux's conviction after Atesiano and three lower-level Biscayne Park cops were indicted on federal charges. But Desrouleaux's new lawsuit, filed Friday in Miami federal court, lays out new details about how he was framed.
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[EuTuCroquet?]

He did 5 years in prison, then got deported. Why? Cops framed him, prosecutors admit

Atesiano was in charge of policing for the tiny suburban village wedged between Miami Shores and North Miami. During his tenure in 2013 and 2014, he boasted about a perfect clearance rate for burglaries — a perfect 19 cases solved in one year alone, he told village leaders.

But disgruntled officers soon began writing letters to the village’s then-manager, who hired an independent investigator to probe the claims that Atesiano and his command staff had ordered up bogus arrests. At least one officer, in a report later obtained by the Miami Herald, claimed he was told to pin the burglaries on "anybody black walking through our streets," or who had "somewhat of a record."

...

Prosecutors say Atesiano, Fernandez and Dayoub in 2013 conspired to pin five burglaries on a 16-year-old identified as T.D., who lived in Biscayne Park and was known to the officers from previous encounters. The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office immediately dropped the cases, but the arrests still counted as clearances for the police department.

The teen, now 21, this week filed a federal civil lawsuit against Biscayne Park, Atesiano and the others.

Ravelo admitted that Atesiano ordered him to do the same thing to a transient man named Erasmus Banmah, 31, for five unsolved vehicle burglaries. Prosecutors said Ravelo falsely claimed that Banmah confessed to each burglary, and even took him to the locations where he supposedly committed crimes.

State prosecutors dumped the cases against Banmah soon after his arrest.
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[EuTuCroquet?]

Miami Man Sues After Cops Framed Him for Theft, Got Him Deported to Haiti

Miami-Dade County public defenders say they're worried they might find even more victims of the scheme in the coming weeks.

"Said misconduct was motivated by racial animus and constituted purposeful discrimination; it also affected black men in a grossly disproportionate manner vis-a-vis similarly-situated caucasian men," Desrouleaux's suit reads. "The conspiracy to violate people’s civil rights based upon race under color of law is exactly what Defendants did to Desrouleaux."​

 

[EuTuCroquet?]

The chief wanted perfect stats, so cops were told to pin crimes on black people, probe found

Records obtained by the Miami Herald suggest that during the tenure of former chief Raimundo Atesiano, the command staff pressured some officers into targeting random black people to clear cases.

“If they have burglaries that are open cases that are not solved yet, if you see anybody black walking through our streets and they have somewhat of a record, arrest them so we can pin them for all the burglaries,” one cop, Anthony De La Torre, said in an internal probe ordered in 2014. “They were basically doing this to have a 100% clearance rate for the city.”

In a report from that probe, four officers — a third of the small force — told an outside investigator they were under marching orders to file the bogus charges to improve the department’s crime stats. Only De La Torre specifically mentioned targeting blacks, but former Biscayne Park village manager Heidi Shafran, who ordered the investigation after receiving a string of letters from disgruntled officers, said the message seemed clear for cops on the street.

“The letters said police were doing a lot of bad things,” Shafran told the Herald. “It said police officers were directed to pick up people of color and blame the crimes on them.”

Beyond the apparent race targeting, the report — never reviewed in village commission meetings — described a department run like a dysfunctional frat house. It outlines allegations that the brass openly drank on duty, engaged in a host of financial shenanigans and that the No. 2 in command during the period, Capt. Lawrence Churchman, routinely spouted racist and sexist insults.

During his roughly two-year tenure as chief, 29 of 30 burglary cases were solved, including all 19 in 2013. In 2015, the year after he left, records show village cops did not clear a single one of 19 burglary cases.



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[EuTuCroquet?]

2 former Biscayne Park police officers accused of making false arrest accept plea deal

Two former Biscayne Park police officers accused of making a false arrest in 2013 accepted a plea deal.

Local 10 News reporter Glenna Milberg was in court as Charlie Dayoub and Raul Fernandez pleaded guilty to deprivation of the victim's civil rights. In return, the state dropped the second charge -- conspiracy to violate civil rights under color of law.

Both men agreed to cooperate with the case against former police Chief Raimundo Atesiano, who prosecutors said ordered the officers to falsely arrest a 16-year-old, identified only as T.D., in 2013 in connection with four unsolved burglaries.​

 

[LotsaLatte]

Wow! What a jerk! I wonder how many other lives were ruined. This is insane!

 

[Jax49]

Wow! What a jerk! I wonder how many other lives were ruined. This is insane!

And others went along with his scheme. I read this thread last night and was so angry I couldn't reply. What utter trash. moo

 

[msphilosopher]

I'd hate to be in prison with the people my department put behind bars....

 

[EuTuCroquet?]

I wonder if they'll be segregated from the general population for their own protection. ...

Ex-officers get prison for framing black teenager in Florida

Two former police officers who admitted to framing a black teenager were sentenced Tuesday by a Miami federal judge. Charlie Dayoub and Raul Fernandez, previously of Florida's Biscayne Park Police Department, will each serve a year in federal prison, court records show.

The ex-officers admitted to falsely arresting a 16-year-old for four unsolved burglaries in order to pad the department's "fictitious 100-percent clearance rate" for such crimes, according to statements from the Justice Department. They pleaded guilty in August.

Raimundo Atesiano, the department's then-chief, encouraged the false arrests, according to the Justice Department statements. He pleaded guilty last month to conspiring with officers to make such arrests.
...

Tuesday's sentencing shocked the courtroom, the Miami Herald reported, as prosecutors agreed with defense attorneys that Dayoub and Fernandez should not serve prison time.

Family members of the former officers wept in disbelief after Judge K. Michael Moore issued the maximum sentence, according to the newspaper.​

 

[EuTuCroquet?]

bbm

Ex-Biscayne Park officers get year in prison for roles in framing black teen in crimes

By helping the feds make a case against a corrupt ex-Biscayne Park police chief, two convicted former officers were hoping to avoid prison time for their roles in framing a black teenager with a string of burglaries.

Instead, Charlie Dayoub and Raul Fernandez were handcuffed and led by U.S. Marshals into custody on Tuesday after U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore sentenced them to the maximum: one year in prison for the false arrests.

As family members cried in disbelief, Moore chastised federal prosecutors for agreeing to recommend eight months of home confinement for Dayoub and one year of probation for Fernandez based on their grand jury testimony and other assistance in helping target former Chief Raimundo Atesiano, who had pressured officers in the mostly white suburban town to pin property crimes on people of color. He pleaded guilty last month.

“It would have been a slap on the wrist, and it would have sent entirely the wrong message — particularly to the minority community,” Moore told Assistant U.S. Attorney Harry Wallace. “To think that they can come into court and get a slap on the wrist is insulting to the men and women in law enforcement.”​

 

[SeesSeas]

3 years’ prison for Florida ex-police chief in framing case
November 27, 2018 02:04 PM
Updated November 27, 2018 02:05 PM
MIAMI
The former police chief of a small Florida city will serve three years in prison for a conspiracy in his department to frame black people for crimes they did not commit.

A federal judge in Miami imposed the sentence Tuesday on ex-Biscayne Park chief Raimundo Atesiano, who had faced a maximum 10-year sentence. Three other former officers have also pleaded guilty in the case, which centered around efforts by Atesiano to improve his department's crime-solving rate.
[...]

For framing innocent black men, a Florida police chief gets three years in prison
November 27, 2018 12:44 PM
Updated November 27, 2018 05:19 PM
Raimundo Atesiano, the former Biscayne Park police chief who directed his officers to frame innocent black men for a series of unsolved burglaries, admitted he wanted to appease community leaders and polish the village’s property crimes record.

Even in a small village of about 3,000 residents, the pressure was just too much, he said.

“When I took the job, I was not prepared,” Atesiano told a federal judge on Tuesday. “I made some very, very bad decisions.”

His apologies did not sway U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore, who on Tuesday sentenced the 53-year-old former cop to three years in prison. He allowed Atesiano to remain free for two weeks before surrendering so he can care for his mother, who is dying of leukemia.
[...]

 

[EuTuCroquet?]

THREE YEARS?! That's all? Wow.