A Coral Gables cop who was once "Officer of the Month" has been arrested on domestic battery and other charges after police said he choked his girlfriend during a physical fight.
Officer Cristino Perez, 56, was arrested Monday on charges of domestic battery by strangulation, battery and false imprisonment, according to an arrest report.
In a statement Tuesday, Coral Gables Police Chief Ed Hudak said Perez has been relieved of duty with pay pending a decision by the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office on whether he'll be formally charged.
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The arrest report said Perez and his girlfriend of three years who he lives with were involved in a verbal altercation Sunday night.
At one point, the girlfriend pushed Perez as he kept insisting she needed to leave the home, the report said.
Perez and his girlfriend began to struggle and when she fell to the floor, he stood over her and started to choke her, the report said.
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She was unable to breathe and "began to see cloudy," but started kicking at him to get him off her and he released her, the report said.
Perez then took her phone when she said she was going to call the police, and took her son's phone as well and went into his bedroom, the report said.
His girlfriend slept in another room and when she woke up Monday morning she demanded her phone back from Perez but he refused and told her to leave the home because their relationship was over, the report said.
The two got into another physical argument, and when she threw an empty beer bottle on the floor and punched a hole in a window, Perez slammed her against a wall, then grabbed his handcuffs and put one on her wrist, the report said.
Perez used the handcuffs to pull her into his bedroom before he removed the handcuffs and she went to pack up her belongings and leave, the report said.
The report said she had bruising and redness on her hand, wrist and neck.
Perez told investigators that his girlfriend bit him on his wrist and he also had visible bruising on his wrist and scratch marks on his neck, the report said.
Perez was arrested and booked into jail. Attorney information wasn't available.
Records showed Perez was named Coral Gables' July 2017 "Officer of the Month."
He was also arrested for aggravated battery of a pregnant woman in 2011 but the charges were later dropped, records showed.
