Trial begins for 1 of 2 ex-Hialeah police officers accused of beating homeless man, trying to cover it up
MIAMI -- The trial for one of two former Hialeah Police Department officers who are accused of beating a homeless man and then trying to cover it up began Monday with opening arguments.
"They betrayed the badge and they betrayed the community," said Assistant Miami-Dade State Attorney Shawn Abuhoff during his opening statement in court.
Opening arguments began in the jury trial of Rafael Otano, 27, who had been a three-year member of the department, before he was terminated from the job.
He and Lorenzo Orfila, 23, a five-year member of the force, were arrested earlier this year after they allegedly responded to a nuisance call on Dec. 17, 2022 about a man said to be harassing businesses and patrons at a Hialeah shopping plaza located at W. 19th Street and 60th Avenue.
That man, identified as Jose Ortega Gutierrez, 51, was taken into custody and instead of being transported to the county jail, prosecutors said the young officers took the man to a dump site before beating him and abandoning him.
State investigators say Otano and Orfila told Gutierrez he was going to be locked up for being drunk and disorderly.
An off-duty Miami-Dade police detective just happened to cross paths in the detective's north Hialeah neighborhood with Gutierrez several hours after the incident and called police, he said during the Monday court proceeding.
"He had a cut or laceration on top of his head," said the officer. "His face looked swollen and bruised. His clothes looked torn and he appeared intoxicated. He accused police officers or robing him, beating him and dropping him off near my community."
Michael Pizzi, lawyer for Otano, told the court that there was no evidence to support involvement by his client.
"There is absolutely zero evidence," Pizzi said. "None whatsoever that Rafael Otano committed an armed kidnapping or committed a battery on anybody."
Prosecutors called three officers to testify for the state and said they would show surveillance video from the shopping plaza of Otano and Orfila escorting Gutierrez away from the shopping plaza.
"If you're taking someone to jail there's only one place in the county and that's TGK," Abuhoff said. "That's just north of the airport. In Hialeah, that's south."
The state attorney charged both of the ex-officers in January 2023 before they were fired from their jobs. They are facing charges that include kidnapping and battery.
If convicted, the former law enforcement officers could be facing a lengthy prison sentence.