DESPICABLE

Florida Cops Charged With Horrific Beating of Handcuffed Homeless Man

Rafael Otano, 27, and Lorenzo Orfila, 22, allegedly arrested homeless man Jose Ortega-Gutierrez and took him to an isolated location where they proceeded to beat him.

Two Florida police officers have been arrested on charges of kidnapping and beating a homeless man. Rafael Otano, 27, and 22-year-old Lorenzo Orfila responded to a disturbance call at a shopping plaza Dec. 17 where they handcuffed homeless man Jose Ortega-Gutierrez and put him in a Hialeah Police car, despite surveillance footage not showing any reason for him to be detained, according to Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle. The cops then took him to an isolated location and proceeded to beat him while he was still handcuffed, Fernandez Rundle said. Ortega-Gutierrez said he woke up bloody and freed from the handcuffs, and reported the alleged assault to police. The homeless man—who doesn’t know how to read in English or Spanish—was allegedly asked days later to sign an affidavit that said he’d been arrested for drinking and wasn’t beaten by police. The man who gave him that affidavit, 45-year-old Ali Amin Saleh, has also been arrested on charges of tampering with the victim. Otano had been with the police department for six years, while Orfila had been there for three. Both cops were fired by the mayor Thursday.