Ex-Hialeah motorcycle cop won’t serve jail time after arrest for issuing bogus tickets

A former Hialeah motorcycle cop accused of issuing bogus traffic tickets won’t be going to jail as part of a plea deal.

Ernesto Arias-Martinez, 24, this week pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor count in exchange for giving up his law-enforcement credential.

In exchange, prosecutors agreed to drop four felony counts of official misconduct, and four misdemeanor counts of falsifying public records. He also received a “withhold of adjudication,” which means the case will not show as a conviction.

His defense attorney, Mark Lefcourt, said Arias-Martinez “served his community with passion and dignity, followed orders and executed as commanded, always.”

“While we are not thrilled that a misunderstanding led to his arrest, we are thrilled to have worked out such a fantastic resolution with the State Attorney’s Office,” Lefcourt said.

A second Hialeah police officer arrested on the same accusations, Armando Perez, is still awaiting trial, which is set for May 9. The pair was arrested in April 2021.

Prosecutors said the scheme to issue sham traffic tickets was exposed when motorists began complaining about citations, even though they’d never been pulled over. The complaints led to a broader audit of the two officers, who were believed to have issued fake tickets to at least nine people in early 2020.

The State Attorney’s Office said the Florida Department of Law Enforcement could eventually re-evaluate and reinstate Arias-Martinez.

“We do not believe this is a genuine possibility, and his lawyer has informed us that Arias-Martinez no longer wants to be a law enforcement officer,” the office said in a statement.

The plea deal was first reported by the Twitter account Because Miami.

The closing of Arias-Martinez’s case comes as the Hialeah police department is hoping to move past the scandals that plagued the department under former police chief Sergio Velasquez, who was removed after last fall’s election of Mayor Steve Bovo.

Most notably, that included the arrest and conviction of ex-officer Jesus Menocal Jr., who pleaded guilty to misdemeanors after he was accused of pressuring women into sex while on duty. He faces up to three years in prison.

Last month, George Fuente, 43, a longtime Hialeah police officer who rose through the ranks, was sworn in as the department’s new chief.

This story was originally published April 6, 2022 at 2:21 PM.