Prosecutors Release Evidence From Miami Beach ATV Accident

Witness recording, images among evidence

State prosecutors have released audio recordings of witness statements, police reports and images of the July ATV accident involving a Miami Beach police officer which paint a sobering picture of the events that led to the accident which left two victims seriously injured.

According to documents released by State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle, a night of hard partying on South Beach by a group of Pennsylvania women celebrating a bachelorette party turned into a harrowing night shortly after they ran into two cops at the Clevelander Hotel.

“These two buff dudes in police uniforms come up,” Brooke Guilliam said. “We were joking, they’re strippers. They posed for pictures with us.”

Another woman in the group, Jamie Aldinger, could not believe the officers were real cops because of how they behaved, she said in a recorded statement. When police specifically asked why she thought cops were strippers, Aldinger had a troubling reply.

“I assumed that because I wouldn’t see a cop having beers in their hand in uniform,” she said.

“They had drinks in their hand?” asked the investigating officer.

“Yes. They were being rowdy and yelling and dancing. I just didn’t think they were officers,” Aldinger said.

When she found out her friend, bachelorette Adalee Martin, had taken a ride on the beach with one of the officers, Aldinger was immediately worried.

“I was scared to death. She went off with this guy we don’t know,” she said. “Why were these police officers dancing and drinking and acting crazy if they were police officers.  That doesn’t make sense. I met a lot of police officers and none of them act like that.”

She then called Martin who told her everything was OK. But then disaster struck.  “The phone cut out I think, the next thing I know she’s calling me. She’s screaming she was in an accident.”

After striking up a conversation with Officer Derick Kuilan, Martin agreed to take a ride along the beach on his ATV.

“He asked me if I wanted to go for a ride on the beach, (that) people pay lots of money to go for rides on beach,” Martin told police in her statement.

Somewhere near the 400 block of the beach Kuilan and his passenger ran over a couple that was on the beach.

Martin said they were going "pretty fast" when the accident happened.

She told police she did not hear anything upon impact, but was thrown off the vehicle and then hit by it. 

“I got up and heard a lady a little hysterical saying, ‘Is he dead?’” Martin said of a witness who knew one of the victims.

She told police she never spoke to Kuilan again.

Hours after the accident police would take a blood sample from Kuilan that showed a blood alcohol level of .088, authorities said. Kuilan and the other officer involved, Rolando Gutierrez, were eventually fired from the Miami Beach Police Department.

Victims are suing Kuilan, the Clevelander Hotel and the City of Miami Beach.

Calls to the Clevelander Hotel and Miami Beach were not immediately returned Tuesday.

Kuilan’s attorney, Evan Hoffman, said his client is contesting the blood test – which he says was taken against his client’s will – as well as numerous statements from the witnesses and the charge that the former officer was driving recklessly.

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