OPA-LOCKA, Fla. – The man at the center of the rough arrest that led to an Opa-locka police sergeant being arrested for the second time this year Tuesday spoke to local media, calling the misdemeanor battery charge a first step towards justice.
Thirty-five-year-old Sgt. Sergio Perez’s boss, Chief Scott Israel, also weighed in Wednesday.
Perez was seen on video dragging then-19-year-old Jafet Castro, who was never suspected of a crime, down the stairs at his family home back in 2020.
“They treat(ed) me like an animal,” Castro said Wednesday.
Officers shocked the teen, who was in psychological distress, with a Taser multiple times.
“(He was) punched, kicked and (was) repeatedly stunned gunned like an animal while he screamed for help,” Michael Pizzi, Castro’s attorney, said.
Pizzi called Perez’s arrest the beginning of justice being done in the case.
“We believe that the acts perpetrated against Jafet in front of his family were criminal, that the officers involved should be arrested and go to jail,” Pizzi said.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement announced the charge in a news release Tuesday.
“Agents found that (Perez) intentionally struck the victim multiple times in the head, despite the protests of another law enforcement officer on scene,” FDLE spokesperson Jeremy Burns said. “He then dragged the victim from his residence by his feet, which resulted in the victim striking his head on the concrete steps.”
Perez was already facing a battery charge after authorities arrested him in January, accusing the then-captain of using a Taser on a fellow officer following an argument.
The FDLE’s investigation into Perez began in June 2022, when Israel, the former Broward County then fresh into his tenure as Opa-locka police chief, asked the agency to review the allegation, Burns said.
Israel spoke about the arrest at a news conference Wednesday.
“The tape is compelling and we’ll see what the judicial process yields,” he said.
Perez has a checkered history in local law enforcement.
Perez, then a corporal, was fired by OLPD for his actions in 2013 involving a catastrophic wrong way crash on Interstate 95 that killed four people.
The department determined he violated procedures by pursuing a suspect the wrong way on the highway before the crash. But he got his job back.
Perez was also fired from Miami Shores police in 2006 following an arrest for drag racing.
When asked Wednesday what took the city so long to take action, Opa-locka City Manager Darvin Williams cited union rules.
“There (are) processes that we have to take with officers that are under those collective bargaining agreements,” Williams said.
Having previously been suspended with pay, Perez is now suspended without pay following his latest arrest.