A 6-foot, 250-pound woman who allegedly jumped on a cop's back was acquitted of battery on the Miami Police officer. The jury took only 28 minutes last Friday to find Sarah Myles not guilty after all three sergeants who were at the scene told different accounts of what happened.
Police made Myles out to be much larger than she really is to justify their actions, said defense attorney Kionne McGhee, who once worked as a prosecutor at the Miami-Dade State Attorneys' Office. She is "only" 5-feet-11-inches tall and weighs 220 pounds, 30 pounds and several inches shorter than what one police officer told investigators.
"The three sergeants completely changed their stories in court," McGhee
said. "That is one of the worse things you can do as a police officer."
Myles plans to sue the officers and the department in civil court.
The
incident took place on October 8, 2009, when a trio from the Northside
District's elite robbery intervention unit, known on the street as "jump
out boys," was patrolling Little Haiti in unmarked cars, dressed in
black and wearing body armor.
The officers spotted two Toyotas allegedly rolling through a stop sign near Northeast First Avenue and 59th Street.
When Sarah Myles, 31, a housewife and volunteer PTA member, was pulled over, police asked to see her driver's license.
"I don't gotta give you shit," the report claims Myles told police. "I'm home."
Then
the driver of the other car, George Madison, 23, [who is Myles' younger
brother] became enraged, according to Miami-Dade Police Sergeant Joseph
Nagy.
"Fuck you, we own this place," Nagy claimed Madison said. "You crackers can't stop me here."
Nagy
called for backup. That's when two other sergeants, James Johns and
Manuel Reguiero, who just happened to be in the area, showed up.
What happened next was in dispute.
Myles claims police delivered blows to the ribs and head of Madison -- until she dialed 911.
"She called the police on the police because they beat her brother without cause," said McGhee.
McGhee said that when police saw Myles call 911, they went after her.
"I did hit her and pushed her on the ground at full speed," Sergeant Requiero told the court last week.
Myles was arrested and charged with battery on a law enforcement officer and resisting arrest. She faced five years in prison.
Getting the story straight proved to be a team effort when it came time to write the police report.
"We
worked as a team and we all chipped in to write the report because of
the narrative aspect and I didn't want to get it confused," Nagy said in
a deposition at the State Attorney's Office last year.
"She's a
fairly large woman, a heavy set woman," Nagy said in his deposition.
"When she jumped on top I felt the collateral aspect of her getting on
top of my partner."
It is a good thing another officer was around to help Nagy.
"Being
that she's over six feet and almost 250 pounds, fearing for Sergeant
Johns' life, I came and pushed her off his back," Regueiro told
investigators from Miami-Dade's Professional Compliance Bureau.
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