Homestead and cop accused of orchestrating arrest in custody case. Mom, cop involved: suit
Julio Trejo was on the front steps of Miami-Dade’s family courthouse two years ago when he was hauled off to jail on charges of stalking and ignoring a stay-away order.
He never made it before a judge that day to argue for the custody of his three children.
A civil lawsuit filed by Trejo in March tells of the sinister plot that led to his arrest: It claims he was handcuffed outside the Lawson E. Thomas Court Center in Miami by a Homestead cop who was having an affair with Trejo’s former girlfriend, the mother of his three children.
It describes the plan as an attempt tip the scale of a justice in a custody battle between the former couple, and keep Trejo away from his kids.
“A police officer was allowed to use his badge to put me in jail in exchange for a sexual encounter with the mother of my children, and he still has the power to arrest any citizen. There is no accountability,” Trejo said last week through his attorney.
Hundreds of texts, suit says
Trejo’s complaint filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court accuses Homestead Police Officer Pedro Perez and Trejo’s ex-girlfriend Lian Sierra of orchestrating the arrest so he would miss the court date.
In the filing, Trejo claims there are hundreds of texts between the two that spoke of their romantic desires and outlined the plan to take him into custody.
Trejo claims in his lawsuit to have found hundreds of texts on his son’s Apple Watch between his ex and Perez, after a failed attempt to retrieve them from the city of Homestead. He claims his ex used the watch to communicate with Perez.
Mysteriously, the vast majority of the texts sent between July and December 2023 disappeared due to a technical malfunction, the city of Homestead said. That led to failed efforts by Trejo to retrieve them through a public records request with the city and a complaint filed with Miami-Dade’s Commission on Ethics & Public Trust.
And some of those texts are steamy. In one, the officer tells Sierra how much he misses her lips and wants to kiss her. In another, according to texts sent on July 5, 2023, that are part of the lawsuit, Perez and Sierra discuss destroying Trejo’s chances of getting custody.
Perez: “So do you want me to get him before next Friday?”
To which Sierra responds: “Can you do it Friday morning that way he misses his hearing and the judge will grant the restraining order.”
Homestead and Perez have recently filed separate but almost identical motions to dismiss the case. They call it “frivolous” and an improper use of the legal system.
Homestead city attorney Eric Stetten refused comment, citing the pending litigation. In the motion for dismissal, Stetten argues the city has “absolute sovereign immunity” from any illegal conduct of employees outside the scope of work. Perez’s attorney Rhea Grossman couldn’t be reached.
As for the charges of stalking and ignoring a restraining order against Trejo, they were eventually dropped.
State prosecutors said Sierra chose not proceed and Perez was eventually disciplined and demoted from detective to a street patrol for his involvement with the woman. Homestead Police Chief Mario Knapp confirmed that after an internal affairs investigation, Perez, a 29-year police veteran, was disciplined, demoted and his pay grade was lowered. He continues to work with Homestead Police.
For his pain, suffering and humiliation, Trejo is seeking a $5 million payday.
“There can be no more dangerous breach of the police power and the public trust than for an officer to use his badge to take away a person’s liberty and make him lose custody of his children in order for the officer to pursue his romantic desires,” Trejo’s attorney Michael Pizzi said.
Custody rights stripped, then restored
Trejo, 33, is no stranger to media scrutiny. He spent three years in prison almost a decade ago after pleading guilty to tampering with a federal witness during a Molly distribution probe involving a friend in a relatively high profile drug case.
Though he lost custody of his three children for a brief time after his arrest, Trejo, a landscaper, now has visitation rights and joint custody.
Meanwhile, the state dropped the charges against Trejo because Sierra chose not to follow through and because Perez — the lead officer in Trejo’s arrest — faced “disciplinary action by his department due to his involvement with the victim in the case.”
According to a Florida Bulldog story from late last year, Homestead Police also decided it was best to drop the case against Trejo.
“Detective Perez [had] poor judgment... causing the partial responsibility of the criminal case being dismissed, in addition to tarnishing the positive reputation that this police department has built in the community over the years,” the website reported Homestead Police Col. Scott Kennedy wrote in a memo to Chief Alexander Rolle.
Ironically, Perez’s plan went sideways even before he was demoted by the police department. Less than a week after the alleged plot was hatched against Trejo, texts found on his son’s Apple Watch show that Sierra informed Perez she’d like to keep their relationship a friendly one.
Said Perez: “I guess I was just chasing something that wasn’t there. It’s my bad.”
This story was originally published May 27, 2025 at 10:34 AM.
