A City of Miami police recruit's career took a 180-degree turn when he ended up behind bars for allegedly trying to have someone else take the department's physical fitness test for him.
Miguel Eduardo Gonzalez, 23, was charged with using his driver's license illegally after he sent his buddy in to pass the physical, the Miami Herald reported. He was released Thursday on $500 bond.
His friend, 24-year-old Carlos Alberto Zayas, was also arrested and charged with obstruction by a disguised person and resisting arrest without violence. Zayas was released on $2,000 bond on Sunday.
Gonzalez had already undergone a background check but had failed the first two fitness tests when he sent Zayas in to pass it for him, police said. The test includes a 1.5-mile run in under 13 minutes and eight seconds, doing 26 pushups in one minute, doing 35 situps in one minute and running 300 meters in 62 seconds or less. About 74 percent of recruits pass the test, officials said.
Police said the plot was foiled when a cop overseeing the physical noticed Zayas looked nothing like Gonzalez. Gonzalez is 5-foot-6 and weighs 140 pounds, while Zayas is 5-foot-11 and weighs 185 pounds, and they have different haircuts.
"It's sad, but it's comical," Miami Police Maj. Delrish Moss told the Herald. "If you’ve got that kind of judgment, this might not be the place for you to work."
