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MIAMI (CBSMiami) – The Miami police officer involved in the November 2020 rough arrest of a handcuffed pregnant woman will likely not be held accountable.
“It was very hard to watch – I wanted to cringe,” said George Ray III with the City of Miami Civilian Investigative Panel.
Ray was referring to a recently released video showing a former Miami police officer’s rough arrest of a pregnant woman who was handcuffed.
“The woman in the video, she seemed like someone who is in distress, like she may have had some medical episodes,” said Ray. “There need to be more officers with more compassion and more de-escalation training.”
In the video, you can see former officer Miguel Hernandez grabbing Julissa Burgos by the neck and throwing her to the ground, leaving her unconscious for several minutes.
Hernandez justified his actions by saying Burgos spat in his face.
An internal affairs investigation into the matter found the officer used excessive.
But Hernandez resigned before the investigation could be finalized, which has drastically impacted the results.
“Although the officer is no longer part of the department, we had to create a ‘no finding’ for that officer,” said Rodney Jacobs, the assistant director for the panel. “Our ordinance doesn’t allow us to make finding a fact for individuals that are no longer in the department.”
On Tuesday, the civilian panel voted in favor of the no finding recommendation, essentially closing the case.
The State Attorney’s Office declined pressing charges, saying the victim would not cooperate.
But some on the panel did express concern about the move, saying they want to write a letter urging the State Attorney’s Office to reconsider.
“The letters will still be written. Although the state attorney didn’t move forward in the past, nothing preclude her from doing it now,” said Jacobs. “There’s been many of cases that have gone forward without the victim or the person that has been harmed, just for a good public policy.”
But despite what the state attorney does, panel members like Ray say something needs to happen to prevent similar behavior.
“There’s no incentive for officers not to use excessive force or commit agree just acts like the ones we seen on this particular video if they’re allowed to resign and still get their pension while the investigation is going on as like a taxpayer vacation,” added Ray.