Miami-Dade Schools Police officer fired over drunken incident in April
An incident in April in which an off-duty Miami-Dade County Public Schools Police sergeant drunkenly tangled with Doral police officers inside a restaurant resulted in the School Board firing her Wednesday.
Dubraska Guevara, 34, pleaded with board members to spare the job she’s held since 2014, but her termination was approved with no discussion from the dais as part of a list of other bulk items accepted at Wednesday’s meeting at the school district’s headquarters.
“My actions that night were not part of my duties. I did not endanger anyone’s life. I did not commit any crimes. I did not breach the public’s interest,” Guevara told board members. “It was an isolated incident that occurred on my day off. I’m not trying to minimize my behavior. I just want to simply be afforded the opportunity to have the matter viewed from a larger scale.”
Guevara’s attorney, Luis Fuste, told board members that the drinks his client consumed on April 24 “were tampered with.”
“The facts in this case are about a matter that happened outside of her control,” Fuste said.
Guevara, while not specifically saying her drinks were compromised, also said something else outside of her control led to her behavior that night.
“I take full responsibility and accountability for my actions. However, there is no doubt in my mind that there were other contributing factors that led to my actions on that night,” she told board members.
The incident sparked outrage from critics of South Florida police in its aftermath because rather than arrest Guevara after she repeatedly struck and cursed at two officers — even knocking off their body cameras — they sent her home with a colleague who came out to the restaurant to pick her up.
Another school district police officer, Jennifer Grenier, was with her that night, but she was only “disciplined administratively” because “her involvement was minimal,” said school district spokeswoman Jaquelyn Calzadilla.
The tussle with the two Doral police officers happened after they were called by the general manager of Heaven Mykonos at CityPlace Doral, who said Guevara and Grenier were being “disorderly and disruptive” and refused to pay their check. He wanted them to leave, according to the Doral police incident report.
Representatives for Heaven Mykonos could not be immediately reached for comment.
The Doral police officers’ body camera footage shows Guevara being belligerent and resisting officers as they took her to the ground to handcuff her. She also swung at Grenier, who is seen in the video cooperating with the Doral officers and yelling at Guevara to calm down.
She accused Grenier of filming her with her cellphone, but she was really just calling someone to pick them up.
Doral police in the wake of the incident said Guevara and Grenier were not afforded any special treatment because they were law enforcement. Police spokesman Rey Valdes told the Miami Herald that officers usually don’t arrest drunk people following similar disturbances.
“There’s dozens of drunks we deal with on a daily basis over there that we don’t even document it. We put them in a cab and we get them the hell out of there. It’s not like we tried to sweep them under the rug,” Valdes said in May.
The Fraternal Order of Police 133, the union that represents officers with the Miami-Dade Schools Police, did not respond to a question asking if it will be appealing the School Board’s decision.
“If this board makes the decision to not terminate her career and find another discipline that saves her job, there will be no litigation,” Fuste said.
This story was originally published August 19, 2021 at 6:17 PM.
