2 Florida Cops Plead Guilty To Framing Innocent Black Teen For Burglaries

Source: Tribune-Miami Herald

2 hrs. ago.

MIAMI - Two former Biscayne Park, Fla., police officers pleaded guilty Friday to framing an innocent teenager with a string of home burglaries at the direction of the chief so his department could boast a perfect property crime-solving record.

The officers, Charlie Dayoub, 38, and Raul Fernandez, 62, admitted they falsified arrest affidavits for the 16-year-old black suspect for four unsolved break-ins in June 2013, a month before then-police chief Raimundo Atesiano touted the town's 100 percent burglary clearance record at a village commission meeting.

Atesiano told the two officers that he wanted them to unlawfully arrest T.D., the teen, for the residential burglaries "knowing that there was no evidence that T.D. had committed the burglaries," according to an indictment charging all three former officers.

The charges against the teen were eventually dropped after the Miami-Dade state attorney's office noticed the four arrest affidavits, written by Fernandez and signed by Dayoub, all used similar vague language - that the "investigation revealed" T.D. employed the same "M.O." and the homes had a "rear door pried open."...More...


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Dayoub & Fernandez face up to one year in prison for violating T.D.'s civil rights, but they could receive less time at their sentencing hearing on Oct. 10 if they provide "substantial assistance" in their cooperation with the U.S. Attorney's Office. As part of their plea agreements, a civil rights conspiracy charge that carries up to 10 years in prison will be dismissed.

After Friday's plea hearing, defense attorneys Ana Davide and David Sobel, representing Dayoub & Fernandez, respectively, said their clients made "terrible mistakes" amid a "culture of fear" fostered by their former boss, Atesiano.