SWEETWATER, Fla. (WSVN) – A Sweetwater officer has been suspended from the force while a second former Sweetwater officer already serving time faces new charges after they allegedly targeted foreign-born victims in South Florida.
Forty-six-year-old Sweetwater Police Sgt. Reny Armando Garcia appeared before a judge Wednesday. Meanwhile, 42-year-old former Sweetwater Detective William Garcia sits behind bars in Virginia on other charges. He awaits extradition to Miami to face these new charges.
Both are accused of battery, theft, fraud, burglary and other violent crimes against civilians. According to the FDLE’s news release, both men specifically targeted foreign-born victims who knew little English and did not know much on the U.S. legal system to exploit them. Most of the victims were also suspects detained by police.
The arrest affidavit described eight separate instances where they abused the badge. In one case, a man said he was shocked with a Taser multiple times while he was cuffed in a police cruiser. He claimed the officer “placed the Taser against his testicles” before “discharging the weapon.”
In another case, a subject said he was tortured in a form of waterboarding. The affidavit said “his nose was pinched shut as water was poured down his throat.”
“The details are appalling,” said Sweetwater Police Chief Placido Diaz. “Almost 30 years of law enforcement experience, I have never encountered anything that egregious.”
Reny Garcia is now suspended without pay and faced a judge Wednesday morning. “Your charges are racketeering, conspiring to racketeer and organized fraud $50,000 or more,” said Judge Catherine Pooler. “I’m gonna set bond at $20,000 at each count.”
Officials said Reny Garcia and William Garcia were charged Tuesday by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
Reny Garcia was booked into the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Facility.
A third officer accused of working with the duo, Detective Octavio Oliu, was charged in 2016.
According to the FDLE, the investigation revealed a pattern of criminal activity that spanned several years. These arrests are part of a larger investigation based on decades of corruption.
Diaz said this era has come to an end. “I think this is the first step of a new beginning for the City of Sweetwater Police Department,” he said.
The FDLE said the investigation has not revealed any wrongdoing by the current leadership.
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