MIAMI – With the defense and the prosecution resting, it was clear on Monday afternoon that a jury will soon start deliberating in the case of a former Hialeah police officer accused of police brutality.
The defense focused on the alleged unreliability of the GPS data that investigators used to estimate the whereabouts of Officer Rafael Otano on Dec. 17.
The prosecution counted on a technology data analyst who reported that Otano’s cellphone data verified the GPS data used during the investigation.
Sgt. Javier Barrios, Detective Hilda Nubia Reyes, and Officer Jeffrey Abascal testified on Thursday. Abascal said he and Otano were assistant officers when they responded to Los Tres Conejitos bakery, at 1912 W. 60th St., on Dec. 17, in Hialeah.
Abascal said there was a report of an “intoxicated male that was bothering customers” and Officer Lorenzo Orfila, the primary officer, found the suspect, Jose Ortega-Gutierrez, in a liquor store in the same strip mall as the bakery.
Abascal said he searched Ortega-Gutierrez, 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 17th Court and 68th Street.
“There was a lot of policies violated already ... I just felt that something was wrong, to be honest,” he said.
Ortega-Gutierrez, who also testified during the trial, accused Otano and Orfila of taking him to a remote area of Miami-Dade County to beat him up and leave him there injured.
Attorney Michael Pizzi, who is representing Otano, questioned Ortega-Gutierrez, who 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 Aug. 21 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 Orfila, 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.
Coverage of trial
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