Charges against FIU protesters dropped. Attorney says arrest reports riddled with errors.
The four protesters arrested three weeks ago near Florida International University’s main campus are no longer facing charges of unlawful assembly after state prosecutors determined they didn’t have enough evidence to move the cases forward.
David Winker, a lawyer representing one protester, faulted police for making the arrests in the first place, saying he was stunned the group has been charged under an archaic statute that was ironically created to break up Black gatherings in the era of racist Jim Crow laws. He also said his client had been interrogated at Miami-Dade Police headquarters about non-existent links to domestic terrorism before being taken to jail.
“It’s such an important moment and what’s the lesson we’re giving these young people about participation?” he said, “I’m glad the charges were dropped. But no kid should have to go through this.”
Winker said fundamental facts were also wrong in arrest reports, saying the police description of a 911 call that led to the arrests didn’t come close to matching the actual recording of the call.
On each of the arrest reports, police said a female caller told a 911 operator that there was a woman in distress in a white vehicle “surrounded and assaulted by a large crowd.” All the caller, actually a male, reported in the 46-second recording was that a woman was jumping in front of cars on the road. The 911 tape was first reported by WLRN. The arrest reports also got the location wrong from the 911 call. It wasn’t the main entrance of FIU at Southwest 107th Avenue and Eighth Street but another site more than a half dozen blocks away.
Miami-Dade State Attorney Spokesman Ed Griffith would not discuss whether errors in the police reports were the the reason for dropping of the charges against the four, which included three FIU students. Three are adults and one is a juvenile.
“Whatever the evidence is,” Griffith said, “if you can’t prove beyond a reasonable doubt, then you drop the charges.”
All four were initially charged with unlawful assembly. The only one of the four whose charges hadn’t been dropped by late Wednesday afternoon is a 19-year-old Black male who was also charged with resisting arrest without violence. The others arrested were a 23-year-old Hispanic woman, a 27-year-old Black woman and a 17-year-old white male.
The State Attorney’s Office has also dropped charges against dozens of people who were arrested for curfew violations stemming from the protests.
The group was arrested early on the evening of June 6. It was just before the 8 p.m. Miami-Dade County curfew, when more than two dozen Miami-Dade police officers in full riot gear showed up. Over a loudspeaker, the crowd was told it had to disperse and that it was an unlawful gathering.
The group near the entrance to FIU were protesting the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and were demanding reform measures when it came to policing and use of force. Most left when they were ordered to.
Then suddenly, with only about 10 protesters remaining and off to a side, as many as 25 Miami-Dade police with shields jumped a concrete barrier and went after the remaining protesters. One man was pushed up against a wall. A woman seated on the ground was forced face-down before being arrested. A Miami Herald photographer was shoved.
Winker said his client is likely to file a lawsuit for wrongful arrest against the police department.
“My law practice focuses on holding institutions accountable because when institutions are not held accountable, bad things happen,” he said.
This story was originally published June 24, 2020 at 6:20 PM.
