2 Demoted Miami police officers file lawsuit, seek to be reinstated, $1,000,000 each
MIAMI - The lawyer for two Miami police officers is speaking out after filing a lawsuit this week.
The two are alleging they were demoted and discriminated against for doing their jobs within the Internal Affairs Department of the Miami Police Department.
Officer Wanda Jean Baptiste and Lieutenant Brandon Lanier claim their reputations have been trashed and their jobs were taken out of retaliation. Their lawyer, Michael Pizzi, spoke for them in a press conference Wednesday.
He says the pair didn't comply with corruption and misconduct, and because of that, he alleges they've been racially and professionally discriminated against. In the lawsuits for each officer, Pizzi reveals both Baptiste and Lanier were told on several occasions to not investigate certain cases and people due to how it could affect other things within the department.
The City of Miami provided these letters of reprimand for Baptiste and Lanier, calling their claims baseless.
However, the two say this reprimand of current Miami Police Chief Manny Morales, is part of the reason they've been demoted and retaliated against.
It shows that back in 2021, Chief Morales was reprimanded for failure to properly investigate a crash involving a police officer.
It is signed off by officers Baptiste, Lanier, and Chief Morales.
The officers say, once Morales was promoted to chief later that same year, he demoted officer Baptiste from internal affairs detective to a patrol officer in Overtown and demoted officer Lanier from a commander within internal affairs to a lieutenant in Overtown.
"An internal affairs department ensures integrity in the police department. It protects the public from police misconduct including excessive force. And it also makes the police department safe for police officers to be honest. When you go into the internal affairs department when you become chief and you kick to the curb and humiliate and destroy the careers of people who would not be improperly influenced and bias their investigations, you've blown that up," said Pizzi.
In January, CBS News Miami interviewed Chief Manny Morales about these allegations, "What's happening here is individuals that violated departmental policy, violated officers' rights. They didn't do the right work in internal affairs. When they got held accountable, they thrown accusations," he said.
Wednesday, the City of Miami gave us this statement in response to the lawsuits filed:
"Officer Jean-Baptiste and Lieutenant Lanier have filed a case against the City of Miami because they are unhappy with the city's decision to appropriately discipline them after the city learned that both officers had improperly deprived another officer of his statutory rights under Florida law. This is now the third time that Jean-Baptiste and Lanier have attempted to challenge the city's proper disciplines. The city is confident that Jean-Baptiste and Lanier will fail to prove any wrongdoing, much like their failure to prove any wrongdoing in their other meritless challenges."
Both officers are asking to be reinstated and damages in excess of $1,000,000 each.