Miami Beach cop found guilty of using excessive force on tourist gets probation from judge
A former Miami Beach police officer found guilty of using excessive force on a Maryland tourist after a chase that received international attention almost four years ago will get no jail time and serve six months probation, a judge said Thursday.
Prior to his decision, Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Alberto Milian said Kevin Perez deserved to be treated like any other first-time offender and said he was withholding adjudication for the former officer — a legal term in which there’s a finding of guilt, but no formal conviction that goes on his record.
“I know this may not make everyone happy or satisfied,” Milian said about his decision.
Perez, who has been on pre-trial release for almost four years, chose not to speak at his sentencing. But Miami Police officer Ricardo Castillo spoke on Perez’s behalf. Castillo was injured badly more than five years ago by a man wielding a butcher knife on Miami Beach, before Perez shot the man dead.
“I was bleeding out,” Castillo said. “I would have died that day if not for officer Kevin Perez.”
Perez, 28, was one of about two dozen officers who surrounded and beat Delonta Crudup, now 28, in the lobby of the Royal Palm Hotel on Collins Avenue in 2021 after a lengthy chase in which an officer claimed his foot was run over by Crudup as he raced away from police on a motor scooter.
The chase began when a seemingly minor incident on a Collins Avenue street corner blew up into an all out-chase for a man on a motor scooter. It started when Crudup almost fell off his motor scooter in front of three friends and three officers, all who began to laugh.
His mistake was giving the cops the finger. Crudup rode off heading north toward the hotel on 15th Street and Collins Avenue. But before he got there, other cops on bicycles kept trying to cut him off, jurors learned at the trial. At one point while riding through an alley, a cop threw his bike at Crudup. As he neared the hotel, a white SUV forced him off the road and he gave up his bike and ran into the hotel.
Beat up by cops in lobby of Miami Beach hotel
Crudup raced into an elevator, but videotape showed an officer catching up to him, ordering him out with his weapon drawn and telling Crudup to get on the ground. Hotel surveillance video seemed to confirm that Crudup obeyed the police orders. Officers though testified he put up a fight as almost two dozen cops surrounded him.
Once Crudup was on the ground, prosecutors said during Perez’s trial, the officer kicked him, picked him up by his arm while he was handcuffed and slammed his head to the ground, gashing his chin and creating a pool of blood.
Perez was convicted of misdemeanor battery in 2023 after Milian lessened the charge from felony battery. The judge said he made the decision after a key state witness testified Crudup suffered no permanent injuries.
After the conviction, Milian negated the verdict and ordered a new trial, saying the state should have alerted the court that it intended to drop other charges against Crudup after the verdict. The 3rd District Court of Appeal reinstated the guilty verdict.
