MIAMI (WSVN) - It’s trial time for a former South Florida police officer accused of kidnapping, but that’s not all. He and another officer were taking a homeless man into custody when, officials said, they took things too far.
Hialeah Police Officer Rafael Otano was accused of kidnapping and beating a homeless man along with former Officer Lorenzo Orfila in December 2022. Witnesses who found the man were heard for the first time on Monday.
Bodycam footage from Dec. 17 showed a beaten and bloody Jose Ortega Gutierrez. He claimed that 27-year-old Otano and 22-year-old Orfila kidnapped him, drove him to a remote location and beat him up after a disturbance at a bakery.
However, the footage isn’t from either of the two officers.
The video captured came from other officers after Ortega Gutierrez was found by an undercover Miami-Dade officer who called 911 as soon as he found him.
“He had a cut, a laceration on top of his head, his face looked swollen, it looked bruised his clothes were torn and he appeared intoxicated,” said the undercover cop. “He just walked up on me and he said he was beaten up, he needs medical attention.”
The officer spoke in court for the first time on Monday.
“He was very adamant that it was the Hialeah Police Department, it was several officers who did that to him, who put him in the condition that he was in,” said the witness. “And at that point, I called 911.”
In opening arguments, Shawn Abuhoff, assistant state attorney, said the biggest piece of evidence was the car that Officer Otano was in.
“They are going to take him through sector five, up to sector six, and out of their own jurisdiction,” said Abuhoff as he pointed to the GPS.
Otano’s lawyers, however, said it’s impossible to prove.
“The raw data that they’re going to use for the GPS had over 500 errors in it,” said Defense Attorney Michael Pizzi.
According to his statement, the car’s GPS was malfunctioning and never showed Otano at the location that Gutierrez claimed he was taken to.
“Mr. Otano was not there, had nothing to do with it, wasn’t present”, Pizzi said. “An arrest was made by two Hialeah Police Officers on-duty that made a decision after responding to take Mr. Ortega Gutierrez into custody, handcuff him and put him in the back of a patrol car and pat him down.”
A couple of more witnesses are expected to be heard from later in the day.
Gutierrez did not appear during opening arguments because he is behind bars on unrelated charges, which include possession of a controlled substance and resisting an officer without violence.
The trial is set to resume Tuesday and is expected to last around five days.
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