SOUTHWEST MIAMI-DADE, FLA. (WSVN) - A jury has found a former Miami-Dade Police officer guilty of official misconduct and battery in connection to a rough arrest in 2019 that left a mother traumatized and triggered outrage across the country.
Alejandro Giraldo learned his fate in a Miami courtroom on Thursday. He kept his head down as the jury read the verdict.
“We thought that we had established that they couldn’t prove beyond a reasonable doubt the charges, but I guess the jury saw it a different way, and we have to accept the jury’s verdict,” said Andre Rouviere, Giraldo’s attorney.
Dyma Loving, the woman who was captured on cellphone video being tackled to the ground during the March 5, 2019 arrest, spoke to 7News hours later.
“I feel free, I feel relieved. I feel a burden is off of my chest, off of my shoulders,” she said.
Loving and her friend called police after, they said, a man pointed a gun at them in South Miami-Dade.
But when officers showed up, Loving was the one who ended up in handcuffs.
Loving said she was upset. In the cellphone video, she is heard pleading with officers to let her call her children.
Giraldo claimed she wasn’t obeying commands, but his arrest report said that wasn’t true.
“It was baffling to me and everything, and I was out of sorts. I just couldn’t understand what was happening at that moment,” said Loving. “It was really difficult for me to even wrap my head around what was going on.”
The video of the arrest went viral, and since then, Loving said, she cannot even watch it and even suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.
“It’s been really hard. I’ve had hard conversations with my children about police officers, and mind you, they’re young, so it’s like hard to talk about that to kids, babies,” she said.
Three years later, Loving said, she’s thankful that the six-person jury did the right thing and found Giraldo guilty.
“I was extremely worried. My nerves were so bad. I know how cops get off with stuff like this every day. They can get off with killing someone,” she said, “but when I got the verdict that he was guilty, I literally cried, I called my father. I was overwhelmed with joy and just peace.”
Giraldo faces up to five years in prison. He will be sentenced this summer.
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