A Miami-Dade jury’s verdict denounced excessive police force. Let’s hope the decision sticks | Opinion

Accusations of residents’ mistreatment at the hands of local police officers have seldom led to criminal charges, much less jury trials. Last week, the tide turned slightly, and encouragingly.

A Miami Beach police officer on trial for using excessive force as part of a group arresting a suspect in a hotel lobby in 2021 was found guilty of simple battery by a jury. Officer Kevin Perez will be sentenced on the misdemeanor charge that could land him behind bars or put him on probation for up to a year.

Three other officers who took part in kicking and punching handcuffed suspect Dalonta Crudup, 26, of Maryland, as he lay face-down on a hotel lobby floor are awaiting trial; one officer has resigned. Thanks largely to a security video, justice was served.

As a city with a long history of troubled relationships with Black suspects, Miami Beach wants it known that the city quickly made Crudup’s beating public and that the police department took action against its own officers.

“In this case, our department suspended the involved officer without pay and referred the case to the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office within hours of the incident,” Mayor Dan Gelber told the Editorial Board. That’s commendable.

In other words, the department blew the whistle on its own officers. That’s the way it should be. But this incident should have never escalated to a beat down of a handcuffed suspect at the Royal Palm Hotel, as the video also shows. Readers may remember this case, which made international headlines.

Crudup, driving a scooter, struck a police cruiser in traffic, then took off, an ill-advised act by any measure.

He was chased via cruiser and then on foot into the hotel by almost two dozen officers, who caught up to him as he tried to get into an elevator.

The handcuffing and arrest of Crudup turned into a beating in full view of hotel security cameras. The officers also roughed up a tourist who videotaped the take-down with his cell phone.

Jurors saw the hard-to-watch video and took less than two hours to convict Perez for taking part.

The incident came a year after the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, one of who, Derek Chauvin, was convicted and sentenced to more than 20 years for squeezing the life out of Floyd.

In the Beach case, we all got to watch angry officers taking it out on a suspect — and it was persuasive. But there might be a wrinkle.

In mid-trail, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Alberto Milian already made the unusual move of reducing Perez’s charge from a felony to a misdemeanor, taking a five-year sentence off the table. The move raised eyebrows.

In his explanation to jurors, the judge said the state failed to prove serious bodily injury to Crudup, a requirement for a felony charge. Milian told the jurors that, under the law, police apply any necessary force to subdue a fleeing felon.

A doctor testified Crudup only needed six stitches after the beating. Thank goodness he didn’t need a body bag.

Encouraged by the judge’s ruling, Perez’s attorney Robert Buschel said he intends to file a motion asking the judge to go a step further and to dismiss the simple battery verdict against his client before Perez’s April 21 sentencing.

The officer could walk away without any punishment. That could happen, but we hope it does not. Even police need to held to account.

If it happens, it’s unclear what that would mean for the other officers awaiting trial. Would prosecutors’ cases against them crumble?

Crudup hasn’t helped matters, but that’s irrelevant. The 26-year-old agreed to testify only after being subpoenaed and given immunity for his upcoming trial here on his initial charge of fleeing and eluding police.

Also troubling, during Perez’s trial, Milian granted the defense the right to discuss Crudup’s arrests of in other states after his Miami Beach incident. That makes Crudup a less-than-sympathetic victim, that’s also irrelevant. Crudup was clearly beaten while in police custody, while handcuffed and helpless.

After the verdict last Friday, Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle, who in the past has been criticized for not prosecuting officers accused of roughing up suspects, supported the verdict, as she should.

”The jurors clearly weighed all the evidence, including the hotel video, before concluding that Perez’s actions violated Florida law,” she said in a prepared statement.

Fernandez Rundle is right: Upholding the law is all that matters.