4 Officers Convicted, 3 Acquitted in Cover-Up of Miami Shooting

This city’s biggest police scandal in nearly two decades sputtered to an inconclusive finish Wednesday when a federal jury found four officers guilty of a shooting cover-up, but acquitted three others and deadlocked on another four.

None of the 11 current or former police officers was found guilty in the shooting death of a 72-year-old drug suspect, who died in a hail of 123 bullets as his 14-year-old great-granddaughter cowered on their bathroom floor nearby.

“Gee whiz, oh, man,” was the surprised reaction to the split decision from James Davis, member of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People’s executive committee. “I thought for sure everybody would be convicted.”

One of the acquitted officers, Alex Macias, accused federal prosecutors of playing fast and loose with the truth to secure convictions. “The ones that should be under indictment should be the government for all the lying and the tampering they have done,” he said.

Controversy and outrage over a number of controversial shootings involving Miami police have led to the payment of millions of dollars to settle victim lawsuits, a change in leadership and installation of a civilian review board to oversee police conduct.

For many, the indictments of 11 veteran officers from elite undercover units were a landmark in efforts to bring a notoriously free-wheeling department under control. The defendants were accused of conspiring to plant guns on unarmed suspects or lying about the circumstances of four police shootings during an 18-month period ending in June 1997. Three men were killed and another wounded in the incidents.

All of the victims in the disputed shootings were black, and all of the defendants were Latino, which greatly heightened tensions around the trial. Supporters of the indicted officers claimed that the U.S. attorney’s office was making a politically motivated ploy for support among Miami’s African Americans.

Miami police brass ruled all of the shootings justified, and state prosecutors declined to bring charges. During the trial, federal prosecutors claimed that the defendants felt “above the law,” and called two retired officers who said the cover-up story for one shooting was concocted over lunch. None of the defendants took the witness stand, but their lawyers contended that they had acted within the law. “The justifiable use of force and deadly force laws have been in existence for years,” defense attorney Richard Sharpstein said. “All of these shootings were well within those parameters.”

The four officers found guilty were accused of being involved in the 1997 shooting of Daniel Hoban, a homeless alcoholic who was shot in the leg by Officer Jorge Castello after the officer reportedly mistook the man’s Walkman for a gun. Castello and Officer Jesse Aguero were convicted on charges in connection with planting a .45-caliber handgun on Hoban. Two other officers, Art Beguiristain and Oscar Ronda, were convicted in the cover-up. Sentencing for the convicted men was set for Aug. 22. They remain free on $100,000 surety bonds.

Federal prosecutors did not immediately announce whether they will seek new trials for the defendants against whom jurors could not reach unanimous verdicts. One of those four, Sgt. Jose Acuna, was also acquitted on two counts.

Jury selection in the case began Jan. 6, the same day Miami’s new police chief, John Timoney, former police chief of Philadelphia, was sworn in with a mandate to clean up a department tainted by charges of chronic misconduct and cover-ups.

“It is critically important that a police chief support his officers when they are out there doing the right thing,” Timoney said. “However, when an officer commits a wrong act with ... evil intent, then there must be no safe harbor for such an individual.”

The charges were the most serious brought against Miami police since the mid-1980s, when some officers stole cocaine from drug traffickers to peddle themselves. The so-called River Cops scandal led to more than 100 officers being arrested, fired or disciplined.