SOUTHWEST MIAMI-DADE, FLA. (WSVN) - A Miami-Dade Police officer has been charged months after the rough arrest of a woman in March.
The State Attorney’s Office announced charges against Officer Alejandro Giraldo, Friday.
Giraldo was seen in a video with another officer arresting 26-year-old Dyma Loving on March 5.
Loving said the incident took place after she called police when a man called her and her friend a derogatory name before pointing a gun at them.
After police responded, things escalated, and Loving was thrown to the ground and placed in handcuffs.
Loving said she was upset and was trying to tell the officers that she needed to charge her phone to call her children. That request led to her arrest.
“I need to call my kids,” Loving could be heard saying in a bodycam video from her arrest.
Girardo said Loving was not obeying commands during the March 5 incident.
However, Girardo’s arrest report states, “… there is no evidence to support this allegation.”
“… There is no evidence that Loving was uncooperative,” the report continued.
The report also stated that Girardo’s written account “… is contradicted by the evidence in this case.”
“I definitely want criminal charges pressed immediately against the officer that put his hands on me, the officers that stood by and didn’t speak up,” Loving told 7News on March 19.
Loving spent the night in jail, but the charges against her were eventually dropped.
7News tried to interview Loving Friday, but she did not want to comment on the arrest and instead spoke through Justin Moore, her attorney.
“I’m cautiously optimistic that justice will be received in this case,” Moore said over the phone.
Moore said the officers that were present on March 5 should also be held responsible.
“This is the start, and this definitely isn’t the finish, so we’re gonna wait and see how much further they take this thing, and hopefully, they take it all the way, in which Ms. Loving can feel vindicated by the process,” Moore said.
Miami-Dade Police Director Juan Perez released a statement to 7News which read in part, “An arrest of one of our own is disappointing, and overshadows the hard work of the dedicated men and women of law enforcement, who strive daily to serve and protect our community.”
Giraldo has been charged with official misconduct and battery. He was held on a bond of $5,500.
He has since bonded out of the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center and is due in court May 24 for arraignment.
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