FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A South Florida judge on Monday declared three other police officers guilty of misconduct in the fatal shooting of a UPS driver who was taken hostage during a 2019 robbery.
Broward Circuit Court Judge Ernest Kollra ruled that Miami-Dade Police officers Richard Santiesteban, Leslie Lee and Rodolfo Mirabal, who were charged with manslaughter in the death of UPS driver Frank Ordonez, cannot be charged because Florida’s “stand your ground” law justified the shooting. death. The same judge acquitted officer Jose Mateo in September for the same reason.
The Broward State Attorney’s Office said it will appeal all four rulings.
“Immunity from prosecution is not the same defense as a defense presented to a jury in this community,” the state attorney’s statement said. “We believe that Stand Your Ground immunity does not apply to incidents involving innocent bystanders such as Frank Ordonez and Richard Cutshaw, who posed no danger to police officers. In this incident, two innocent men were killed and the lives of many other innocent bystanders were endangered.”
That afternoon, Cutshaw was also killed in intensive gunfire.
Ordonez, 27, was delivering packages in Miami-Dade County on Dec. 5, 2019, when police say two would-be jewelry store robbers kidnapped him and forced him to drive away from the scene. The rush-hour police chase ended at a busy intersection in neighboring Broward County.
Prosecutors said Mateo shot and killed Ordonez. Two robbers and a bystander were also killed in a hail of bullets at an intersection in Miramar, Florida.
Body camera video played in court showed Mateo chasing the UPS truck that afternoon. His partner can be seen sitting in the passenger seat with a long gun drawn. The video also shows Mateo approaching a UPS truck. He emptied the gun’s magazine, reloaded it and pulled Ordonez from the vehicle.
The judge ruled that officers had reason to believe deadly force was needed to end the confrontation.
Currently, the four officers have been suspended.
