MIAMI – Sgt. Javier Barrios, Detective Hilda Nubia Reyes, and Officer Jeffrey Abascal testified on Thursday during the trial of a former Hialeah Police Department colleague who stands accused of police brutality.
Abascal said he and Officer Rafael Otano were assistant officers when they responded to Los Tres Conejitos bakery, at 1912 W 60 St., on Dec. 17, in Hialeah.
Abascal said there was a report of an “intoxicated male that was bothering customers.”
Abascal said Officer Lorenzo Orfila, the primary officer, found the suspect, Jose Ortega-Gutierrez, in a liquor store in the same strip mall. Abascal said he searched the suspect, grabbed his wallet, and gave it to Orfila before following the patrol car with Orfila, Otano, and the suspect.
Abascal said he decided to stop following the patrol car 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.”
Abascal testified during the fourth day of Otano’s trial after Ortega-Gutierrez accused Otano and Orfila of taking him to a remote area of Miami-Dade County to beat him up and leave him there injured.
“They both told me that they dropped him off,” Abascal said in court about a conversation he had with Otano and Orfila after the incident.
Attorney Michael Pizzi, who is representing Otano, questioned Abascal, who said he didn’t know the GPS was not working in his patrol car on Dec. 17 and he too didn’t activate his body cam and like Otano was not required to write a police report.
Barrios, who has been a police officer for 18 years, said in court that he supervised Otano and he was working on Dec. 17 when Otano was dispatched to the bakery. He also said that he didn’t know Ortega-Gutierrez was in police custody, and Otano did not include it in his daily report.
“There was no reference to a transport,” Reyes, an internal affairs detective, said in court about Otano’s report about his activities on Dec. 17.
Also on Thursday, Pizzi questioned Ortega-Gutierrez in court before Abascal’s testimony. Ortega-Gutierrez said he regularly drank beer and two bottles of vodka, and got into fights to defend himself because he had trained as a professional boxer when he was younger in Cuba.
“I am an alcoholic and I don’t deny it,” Ortega-Gutierrez said in Spanish with the help of a court-appointed translator.
Ortega-Gutierrez was 50 years old when a Miami-Dade police officer reported finding him injured, and Ortega-Gutierrez told him Hialeah police officers were to blame. Detectives with internal affairs investigated the report, and prosecutors charged Otano and Orfila with armed kidnapping and battery.
“Nobody is above the law — including the defendant,” Assistant State Attorney Shawn Albuhoff said about Otano 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 on Jan. 26.
Orfila is also facing a charge of official misconduct, and Saleh 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 on Feb. 13, 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. Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Andrea R. Wolfson is presiding over Otano’s trial. She said the trial resumes at 9 a.m., on Friday.
Albuhoff told Wolfson the prosecution had five more witnesses before resting. Pizzi told Wolfson the defense did not anticipate keeping the jury past Monday and planned on filing a motion for judgment of acquittal.
Coverage of trial
Related stories