An appeals court has reversed the conviction of a former Miami-Dade Police officer in the 2019 rough arrest of a woman that was caught on camera.
Alejandro Giraldo was found guilty by a jury in 2022 on battery and official misconduct charges in the March 5, 2019 arrest of Dyma Loving.
Giraldo was later sentenced to 364 days in jail, followed by 18 months of probation.
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But in an opinion filed Wednesday by Florida's Third District Court of Appeals, judges found the conviction should be reversed, noting that Giraldo "did not knowingly or intentionally falsify an official record or document," related to the official misconduct charge.
"The trial court erred in denying Giraldo’s motions for judgment of acquittal. The State conceded at oral argument that if the motion for judgment of acquittal on the official misconduct count should have been granted, it should have not proceeded with the battery count, as the arrest would have been lawfully made," the opinion said. "We therefore reverse the final judgment of conviction and sentence and remand for entry of judgment of acquittal on both counts."
The incident happened when Loving called police to report that a neighbor pointed a shotgun at her.
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Things escalated when Loving said she and her friend tried to explain what happened. Loving and Giraldo exchanged words, and Giraldo grabbed Loving and took her into custody.
The rough takedown was caught on camera. Police body cameras also recorded the encounter.
The video showed Giraldo pushing Loving into a fence and then taking her to the ground, where she was handcuffed. Loving was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest without violence. Those charges were later dropped.
The official misconduct charge centered around Giraldo's account of the encounter.
"During the conversation Ms. Loving began acting belligerent and would not obey
commands. As we tried to keep the parties involved separated, Ms. Loving became further upset, very irate, and uncooperative," he wrote in the arrest report. "Ms. Loving began to scream at us causing a scene in the residential neighborhood. Ms. Loving was asked several times to stop screaming and cooperate. Ms. Loving was advised that the investigation was interrupted by her screaming and disruptive behavior."
"Giraldo’s subjective account of the events depicted doesn’t rise to the level of knowing or intentional falsification," the appellate court noted in its opinion. "Upon a review of the footage, Giraldo’s description isn’t patently false or inaccurate."
Giraldo had originally been facing up to five years in prison.
"I'm very happy for him, I think it was the right result," Giraldo's attorney, Dan Tibbitt, told NBC6. "He did not commit a crime by making a false statement. We’re gratified that the Third District Court of Appeals would look at that and recognize that."
NBC6 reached out to Loving's attorney and was waiting to hear back.
Former Miami-Dade Police Director Juan Perez, who fired Giraldo, released a statement to NBC6 on Thursday about the decision.
“Although I respect the decision of the District Court of Appeals, I am surprised. The guilty verdict was decided by a jury and not the state attorney," the statement read.
Tibbitt said Giraldo still has remorse over the arrest.
"He certainly of course wishes that this whole event did not happen both for her and for himself. The criminal case was not about whether best police practices were used that day and I think that he would say that they were not and that is why he apologized to her," Tibbitt said.
