Three Miami Beach police officers involved in rough arrest now face felony charges

Three Miami Beach police officers charged over the rough arrest of two men at the Royal Palm South Beach hotel two months ago will have their charges upgraded to felonies.

Prosecutors on Thursday announced upgraded charges for Officer Kevin Perez and Sgt. Jose Perez, who had been charged with misdemeanor battery and is now charged with third-degree felony battery. Officer Steven Serrano is now charged with a count of official misconduct, which is a third-degree felony, for allegedly authoring a bogus police report about the incident.

Serrano is still facing a misdemeanor battery charge, along with two others: officers Robert Sabater and David Rivas.

The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office initially charged the five officers in August in a case that drew national attention.

Prosecutors said officers on July 26 used excessive force against a man named Dalonta Crudup, 24, who had been illegally parked on a motor scooter on 13th Street and Ocean Court. Police say Crudup took off, hitting an officer with his scooter and injuring him severely enough that he wound up hospitalized and on crutches.

Crudup ditched the scooter and ran into the lobby of the Royal Palm, where surveillance cameras captured a group of officers pummeling him even as he was handcuffed. Another man who happened to be in the lobby, Khalid Vaughn, 28, was video recording the arrest and was promptly tackled and punched and elbowed by officers.

Vaughn’s friend, Sharif Cobb, was also arrested — and punched by an officer — after filming officers as they waited outside the lobby to transport his friend to jail. The charges against both men were dropped by the State Attorney’s Office.

Crudup was initially charged with battery and aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer. Prosecutors reduced the charges, and he is now awaiting trial on counts of fleeing and eluding police, and reckless driving.

As for Vaughn and Cobb, they were among over a dozen people charged that July weekend under a controversial ordinance that makes it illegal to “approach or remain within 20 feet” of a Miami Beach police officer with the “intent to impede, provoke or harass” an officer engaged in lawful duties, after receiving a warning.

Critics have said the ordinance gave officers cover to arrest people lawfully filming police officers. All 13 of the arrests were also of Black people, and civil-rights activists had called for stiffer charges against the cops.

“All aspects of this July 26th police incident are taken very seriously by my prosecutors,” Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said in a statement Thursday. “The investigation has been and will be as thorough and complete as possible since our entire community has been shocked and offended by what we have seen.”

In its statement, the office said the decision was made to enhance the battery charges after prosecutors were finally able to view Crudup’s medical records. Crudup, who is still being prosecuted by the State Attorney’s Office, did not initially agree to allow prosecutors to view the records from after the arrest.

He finally gave permission in late August, and investigators determined the injuries were more serious. “A deeper understanding of the actual injuries was necessary to file these felony battery charges,” the state said in its press release.

Defense lawyers involved in the case declined to comment.

“I try my case(s) in the courts, not in the media,” Coral Gables attorney Douglas Williams, who represents two of the officers, wrote in an email. “A ‘not’ guilty plea means exactly what it says; nothing more, surely nothing less.”

This story was originally published September 23, 2021 at 9:19 AM.