Eric Matheny, a criminal defense attorney who was a Miami-Dade assistant state attorney for two years, says TNT today suffers from a philosophical problem at its core: Officers often have to assume the role of bad guys to do their job effectively.
"It's like the movie Training Day with Denzel Washington," Matheny says, referring to the Oscar-nominated film about a corrupt team of Los Angeles narcotics officers. "They almost have to step outside their roles as policemen and emulate the bad guys... Sometimes they forget that enforcing the law doesn't mean they are above the law."
Mark Poutenis
Mark Poutenis
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On December 19, the first day of Santa's Helper, Elizabeth Level was across the street chatting with a neighbor when more than a dozen TNT cops stampeded through the front gate of the home she had bought in 1971 for $16,000. The 87-year-old retiree watched in horror as Det. Dwight Dominguez knocked down her 1-year-old great-granddaughter as he went to grab her grandson Dante. "I've never experienced anything like it," Elizabeth says. "The police were out of control that night."
The stories of the Levels and others snagged during Santa's Helper — who were just stats for TV reporters the night after the operation — illustrate why many people in their neighborhood say TNT busts forge a lack of trust between the area's residents and the undercover detectives prowling the streets.
Elizabeth is a perfect example. She says she wants the streets safe for her grandchildren — but not at the cost of her family living in fear of police. By the end of the day, three of her grandchildren were under arrest: 40-year-old Alexis, charged with cocaine possession; 30-year-old Dante, charged with marijuana possession; and 29-year-old Khalid, charged with obstruction of justice.
"Why not spend some time actually meeting the people who live here? They're out here wasting taxpayers' money putting five people in jail for the same joint," Elizabeth Level says.
She lives on a quiet tree-lined street in a residential neighborhood that would fit perfectly in a Norman Rockwell painting. Built in 1925, her abode is vintage Florida with its stucco façade and weathered wood floors.
Elizabeth made a living as a nurse's aide at Mount Sinai Hospital in Miami Beach for 34 years until she retired in 2006. She has paid off two mortgages on her house and has never been delinquent on her property taxes. During the 40 years she has raised three generations of Levels on NW 52nd Street, she has never been in trouble with the law. She spends her days looking after her 12 grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Her grandsons Dante and Khalid live nearby.
Dressed in a gray tank top and blue gym shorts on a recent weekday, the Georgia native corrals three of her toddler great-grandchildren into the living room and shakes her head dismissively when asked if her son and his friends were smoking pot the evening of Santa's Helper.
"Look at my yard," she says. "It's littered with cigar butts. These kids are smoking those Black & Milds all the time."
What's more, she says TNT officers were unnecessarily forceful. "They pushed my great-granddaughter to the floor," she says. "She's just a baby. The way they came in here was insulting and disrespectful."
The raid marked the second time in three months that TNT had ripped into her front yard to snatch a family member. Last October 22, while the team was arresting a couple of neighbors for allegedly smoking marijuana, Elizabeth's grandson Khalid was on the front step of the portico.
According to Dets. Jesus Martinez and Alexis Rodriguez, Khalid began mouthing off. He allegedly yelled, "Fuck all you pussies, soft-ass cops." The two officers alleged Khalid then punched and kicked them while resisting arrest for inciting a riot. Before that incident, Khalid had never been arrested for a violent crime. (He has two separate arrests for marijuana and cocaine possession, and a conviction in 2010 for possession of a controlled substance, for which he served 364 days.)
According to Elizabeth, Alexis, and neighbor Bobby Ricky Madison, the two detectives dragged Khalid off the front porch. "Once Khalid was on the sidewalk, the officer slapped him in his face with an open hand repeatedly," Madison says. "Khalid's daughter was crying, 'Why are you hitting my daddy?'" Alexis says Rodriguez knocked Khalid nearly unconscious. "I saw my brother's eyes roll back," she says. "He's lucky he didn't pass out."
Khalid filed a complaint with the Miami-Dade Police Department's internal affairs unit. Because it is still an open investigation, police officials cannot comment about it.
Two months later, the night of Santa's Helper, Khalid found himself in an all-too-similar situation. When the police showed up, he asked his grandmother if the cops had a search warrant. "That's when one of them goes, 'That's him, the one with the mouth,'" Khalid says. "I walked over to the neighbor's house and they followed me." Khalid was arrested for obstruction of justice. According to his arrest report, Khalid shouted, "Fuck the police," impeded a TNT investigation, and refused police orders to leave the scene.
(Nanney declined to comment about the Levels' complaints.)
Alexis also disputed the circumstances of her arrest December 19. According to her arrest report, TNT officers followed her into the house because she was holding a cigarette laced with cocaine. On the bed in her room, Det. Terence White claimed, he found a baggie containing less than a gram of coke.
