MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – A deputy with the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office has been arrested by the City of Miami Police Department, Local 10 News learned Tuesday.
Recommended Videos
According to jail records, Daniel Chala, 54, was arrested Monday on charges of false imprisonment and battery.
His arrest report details the allegations against him, stating that officers responded to Chala’s apartment building Monday morning where they found the victim who said that she had been assaulted by Chala.
Police said officers detained Chala as they further investigated what had occurred.
According to the report, a witness told police that she was laying down in bed when she heard someone knocking on her front door, yelling, “This guy is trying to kill me. He has my bags!”
The witness said she then walked to the door and looked through the peephole and could see the victim standing in front of her door, bleeding from the mouth.
According to the report, the witness opened the door and allowed the victim inside as she called the front desk and asked for police to be contacted.
The witness told police that the victim eventually walked back to Chala’s apartment, knocked on his door and asked him to return her belongings.
Police said Chala opened the door and placed the victim’s belongings in front of it, including tennis shoes and a purse, as the witness recorded the interaction.
According to the report, the victim claimed that she met Chala at the E11EVEN Miami nightclub earlier that morning and that when she was getting ready to leave he told her, “Let’s go to my place. I live alone.”
Police said the victim claimed that she went to Chala’s apartment and was “making out” with him on his bed when he asked her a question, which confused her since she had previously answered it.
The arrest report did not specify the question that Chala asked her.
According to the report, the victim then got up and walked toward the bedroom door, at which time Chala allegedly placed his arms around the victim’s neck and kissed her.
Police said he continued to hold the victim “in a tight grip, wrapping his arm tighter around the victim’s neck.”
The victim told police that she initially thought Chala’s actions were a “sexual engagement” so she went along with it, but his grip got tighter, at which time she told him, “Babe, you’re hurting me. Stop, stop.”
According to the report, the victim eventually “dropped her weight down to the floor, but the defendant continued to hold her head and neck with his arm as he leaned down in a face-to-face position.”
“The victim stated she then began to crawl backward towards the front door of the apartment unit as she yelled, ‘Stop, stop, stop. Let me go,’” the report stated.
According to the report, the victim then ran to several nearby apartment units before the witness answered the door.
Police said the victim had visible red marks on the right side of her neck and chin, as well as a broken right pinky nail and a partially broken right ring fingernail.
According to the report, Chala admitted to taking the victim home to his apartment but denied touching her, other than “kissing her on the hand.”
Police said he also denied having any kind of physical contact with any other woman that night, but when questioned about a make-up stain on his shirt, he replied, “Maybe I hugged a girl. I don’t know.”
Chala was arrested and booked into the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, where he was being held on a $3,500 bond.
“I am disappointed to learn that one of my deputies has been arrested,” Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz said in a statement to Local 10 News. “I expect every member of this office to conduct themselves with integrity, professionalism, and respect for the oath they have taken. When someone falls short of those expectations, it tarnishes our profession and the public’s trust.”