MIAMI – The trial of Rafael Otano, one of the two men who stand accused of kidnapping a man and beating him up while they were working as police officers in Hialeah, continued for the third day on Wednesday in Miami-Dade County court.
Jose Ortega-Gutierrez continued his testimony about the police brutality he said he experienced on Dec. 17 after police officers responded to a bakery in Hialeah, handcuffed him, and took him to a desolated area in Miami-Dade County to beat him up.
Attorney Michael Pizzi, who is representing Otano, questioned Ortega-Gutierrez about his struggles with homelessness and alcoholism. He also questioned the reliability of his memory when he asked him about his criminal record, including a drug-related arrest.
“That doesn’t have to do with this case,” Ortega-Gutierrez protested in Spanish with the help of a translator before the judge instructed him to answer Pizzi’s questions.
Pizzi and Ortega-Gutierrez stood in front of a television screen playing surveillance video recorded on Dec. 17 at the bakery in Hialeah. Pizzi asked Ortega-Gutierrez repeatedly about where he was and what he was doing in the bakery.
“You are trying to play with my mind ... He is trying to play with my head,” Ortega-Gutierrez told Pizzi, who asked the judge to order him to answer the questions.
The Hialeah police officers’ response to the bakery preceded the alleged police brutality in Miami-Dade County. After the alleged attack, fire rescue personnel treated Ortega-Gutierrez, who was 50 years old then, for his injuries.
Ortega-Gutierrez told a Miami-Dade police officer who found him injured that Hialeah police officers were to blame and described one as blond. Pizzi brought a blond mannequin head to the courtroom to confront him since his client has brown hair.
“I got confused with the hair color,” Ortega-Gutierrez said in court.
Detectives investigated Ortega-Gutierrez’s report, and prosecutors charged Otano, 27, and Lorenzo Orfila, 22, also a Hialeah police officer, with armed kidnapping and battery.
“Nobody is above the law — including the defendant,” Assistant State Attorney Shawn Albuhoff said during his opening statement on Monday in court.
Ali Amin Saleh, a private investigator, later offered Ortega-Gutierrez money so he wouldn’t report the beating, according to prosecutors. Juan Prietocofino, a notary, was accused of fraud for notarizing an affidavit Saleh allegedly asked Ortega-Gutierrez to sign.
The detectives’ findings prompted Hialeah Mayor Esteban Bovo Jr. and Hialeah Police Chief George Fuente to terminate Otano and Ofila, who surrendered to face charges in January.
Orfila is also facing a charge of official misconduct, and Saleh, 46, is facing a charge of witness tampering. Circuit Judge Robert Watson set Orfila’s bond at $20,000 and Otano’s bond at $10,000 in February and ordered house arrest.
In Florida, an armed kidnapping charge is a first-degree felony punishable by up to life in prison, or up to life on probation and up to $15,000 in fines.
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