Change in judges in Hialeah cops beating case. Trial set to begin at end of July
Two Hialeah cops and a private investigator involved in the alleged beating and kidnapping of a homeless man have been granted a trio of legal requests: First, the judge originally overseeing the case moved on. The defendant’s request for a speedy trial has been granted and the judge indicated a proposal to seat two juries in the same courtroom was not likely to happen.
“The speedy trial is extremely significant because as a police officer, my client can’t return to his job until the case is dismissed,” said attorney Michael Pizzi, whose client Rafael Otano was fired after his arrest. Otano, as is his right, requested the quick trial date. “He’s also been under house arrest. So it’s crucial.”
An investigator charged with witness tampering in the case also had requested in early May that Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Robert Watson remove himself from the case. Ali Amin Saleh argued that because Watson had been represented in the past by an attorney hired by one of the Hialeah officers, it created a conflict of interest. When Watson denied that motion, attorney Stephen Lopez appealed to the Third District Court of Appeals.
But when Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Andrea Wolfson announced June 30 that Watson was moving from criminal to civil court, Saleh’s motion became moot. Wolfson then took over the proceedings. And though she hasn’t publicly announced she doesn’t intend on seating twin juries — a rare move that Watson said he was entertaining — two of the attorneys involved in the case said they were told so by the judge during a status conference.
“The new judge suggested that the dual jury would not be likely,” Pizzi said.
Watson had told the parties in May he was “strongly inclined” towards seating two juries in the very same courtroom — essentially giving the officers separate trials at the same time. Though not unheard of, it’s rare and usually done because of financial constraints in the court system. It’s also a way of being certain that a jury pool isn’t tainted from an earlier trial, though overlapping witnesses and the potential for jurors in separate cases to speak with each other can pose problems.
Wolfson is now expected to seat a single jury for both officers and the trial for Otano and Lorenzo Orfila is scheduled to begin July 31, an unusually quick time-frame for a high-profile case in which arrests were announced less than six months ago.
Prosecutors from the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s office have accused the two former officers of abducting a well-known homeless man from a Hialeah strip mall after a business owner complained he was harassing people. Then, the state claims, the two officers took Jose Ortega Gutierrez to a wooded area several miles away where they beat him and left him injured. Gutierrez told police the officers told him he was being taken to jail for public intoxication and disorderly conduct.
During a January press conference announcing the arrests, State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle explained how GPS in one of the officer’s patrol cars showed Gutierrez was taken to a wooded area several miles away and that he was later found beaten and disheveled by an off-duty Hialeah cop, who called police. Otano and Orfila have been charged with kidnapping and battery, potential life sentences.
Also charged with taking part in the cover-up of the incident was Saleh, who investigators say found Gutierrez at the same strip mall several weeks after the alleged Dec. 17 incident and offered him $1,350 to sign an affidavit saying the officers did nothing wrong. Also charged is Juan Prietocofino, who the state claims fraudulently notarized the misleading affidavit meant to clear the cops.
An earlier version of this story that indicated the new judge overseeing the trial is the chief judge of Miami-Dade Circuit Court, was not correct. The chief judge is Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Nushin G. Sayfie. The Herald regrets the error.
This story was originally published July 12, 2023 at 5:30 AM.
