"The sweeps do nothing to reduce drug activities except to suppress it while the police presence is apparent," Dunn says. "After the cops are gone, it's back to business as usual."
Exacerbating the tension between residents and TNT is the unit's track record of excessive force. New Times has reviewed the personnel files of the 14 officers who participated in Santa's Helper and found they had been investigated by internal affairs a total of 44 times. A majority of the cases were for discourteousness and unprofessionalism, improper searches and seizures, and excessive use of force. In addition, the 14 officers have used force against subjects a combined 83 times.
Mark Poutenis
Mark Poutenis
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Only one of those complaints was sustained — against Det. Dwight Dominguez in 2008 for improper police procedure — but the details in the IA files and use-of-force incident reports paint a picture of a unit that often doesn't toe the line when pursuing drug suspects.
Consider what happened to Matthew "Sonny" Stemage on a muggy afternoon last May 12. A 51-year-old recovering cocaine addict with a Fu Manchu mustache and short braids, Stemage steered his beat-up Scwhinn bicycle along Lucy Street near SW Seventh Place in Florida City. He had just left his mother's house, which was located near a known drug den in Homestead that was under surveillance by TNT Det. Joseph Amor. He radioed squad mates Harold Riobe Jr. and Carlos Reyes to take down Stemage, whom he had just allegedly seen exchange money for baggies of crack cocaine.
According to a use-of-force report, Stemage began to resist while Reyes searched his pockets. During the struggle, Reyes, Riobe, and Stemage fell to the ground. Two witnesses claimed both cops repeatedly struck Stemage, who already had one hand cuffed. Riobe (who has been cleared in three IA complaints and 11 use-of-force incidents) then smacked Stemage with his police radio, according to one witness. The officers were cleared of wrongdoing.
Or consider another incident, on January 28, 2011, when Sophia Murray was cruising on her bicycle near NW 46th Street and 23rd Avenue in Miami.
Murray complained she was struck from behind by an unmarked police car in which Riobe was riding shotgun. He and his partner arrested her on three felony charges of tampering with physical evidence and cocaine purchase and possession. According to the arrest report, she was observed buying crack cocaine from a nearby dope hole. Murray alleges Riobe called her a racial slur. He allegedly said, "You black bitch. You thought you did something witty? You are going to jail."
Riobe and his partner denied her accusations. With no independent witnesses, her complaint was not sustained.
Three months later, not far from where Murray was apprehended, Luis Rojas was stopped on his bicycle by TNT Det. Alexis Rodriguez, who has been the subject of nine IA complaints for using excessive force, discourteousness, and improper search and seizure. He's been cleared every time.
A 31-year-old Allapattah resident, Rojas claims Rodriguez punched him in the face repeatedly and then placed him in the bed of an unmarked Ford F-150 pickup driven by the detective's partner, Jesus Martinez. Fearing the cops were taking him somewhere secluded to rough him up more, Rojas began to scream for help. He claims Rodriguez continued to punch him, grabbed him by the throat, and told him to "shut the fuck up."
Rodriguez admitted to striking Rojas when he initially stopped him because he was resisting arrest with violence, but the TNT detective denied choking and punching the bicyclist. Rodriguez alleges Rojas swallowed a baggie of crack cocaine while he was trying to subdue him. With no independent witnesses, the complaint was declared "unfounded." Rojas is awaiting trial for tampering with evidence.
Complaints such as Rojas's, Murray's, and Stemage's are more than just disturbing to the community — they also often lead to cases getting dismissed, says former Miami-Dade prosecutor Eric Matheny.
Take the 73 people arrested for pot possession during the two days of Santa's Helper. More than half of them, 42 defendants, had charges dropped by prosecutors. Two others were acquitted, one by a jury and the other by a judge.
"When they do these huge sweeps, the police are only concerned with getting a high number of arrests," Matheny says. "The end result is a lot of bad searches, inadmissible evidence, and abuse at the hands of TNT cops."
However, Nanney says, the number of complaints against the 14 TNT detectives is not unusual.
"We don't use quotas," he says. "We evaluate and investigate each complaint on its own merits. These officers make a vast majority of arrests against violent, combative bad guys who are sometimes under the influence of drugs."
Dante Level sits on the front step of his mother's portico on the breezy afternoon of January 31. It's been more than a month since TNT dragged him, his brother, and his sister to jail, but they are still fuming — and dealing with the fallout. All three siblings owe serious money — even though they say their cases are bogus — and more important, they now feel unsafe in their grandmother's front yard.
Alexis's cocaine charge was dropped, but she had to pay $500 for bail. Dante was released the next morning after appearing before a judge. He was fined $498 that he doesn't have. Three arrests for marijuana sure won't help him land a decent job. Khalid, a hazel-eyed man with his siblings' names and a family tree tattooed on his right arm, says he owes his bondsman more than $3,000 for his two arrests at the hands of TNT. He says he plans to fight both cases against him.
