Chief Pleads Guilty to Framing Innocent Black People to Make Dept Look Like They Solved Crime

 Miami, FL — Biscayne Park Police Chief Raimundo Atesiano used to brag  about solving 100 percent of the town’s crimes. However, this week he  admitted to how he accomplished such an impossible feat — he framed  innocent black people. 

A scathing report  from the Miami Herald details that on multiple occasions, former chief  Atesiano told his cops to target random black people and charge them  with crimes in open cases so they could boast their clearance rate —  which is defined as the amount of open cases solved by the department. According to the Miami Herald, Atesiano, 52, pleaded guilty to a  conspiracy charge of depriving the three suspects of their civil rights  because he and the officers framed them. 

Although race was not a factor  in the federal case against the former police chief, the three wrongly  arrested men are black. “If they have burglaries that are open cases that are not solved yet,  if you see anybody black walking through our streets and they have  somewhat of a record, arrest them so we can pin them for all the  burglaries,” one cop, Anthony De La Torre, said in an internal  probe ordered in 2014, according to the Herald. “They were basically  doing this to have a 100% clearance rate for the city.” 

On top of framing innocent black teenagers for dozens of crimes they  never committed, the department was a place where cops openly drank on  duty, practiced shady financial schemes, and had no problem bragging  about their racism and sexism. Investigations revealed that the second in command, Capt. Lawrence  Churchman, routinely spouted racist and sexist insults and suffered no  recourse. “The captain has said on several different occasions he doesn’t want any n—–s, f—–s or women b—–s working at Biscayne Park,” officer Thomas Harrison said according to the report. 

According to the Herald, over the last decade, the department has  also seen an officer arrested on charges of holding his wife hostage, a  troubled officer sued for excessive force and another officer charged  with beating a suspect. 

During the years the cops were framing innocent black people for  crimes of which they had no evidence, the clearance rate for the  department was nearly perfect. 

Illustrating how many of the cases were  pinned on innocent people, after the chief left, the department never  solved a single one of the 19 burglary cases. Atesiano denied the allegations in July when he and two other officers who were formerly indicted all pleaded not guilty. Despite the new chief, Luis Cabrera, claiming to have cleaned up the  department, for his second in command, he hired a problem cop that was  embroiled in the old racist and corrupt department. As the Herald points out: 

In June, the village hired as its top cop Luis Cabrera, a  former high-ranking Miami police officer. He says he’s audited the  evidence room, restructured the command staff and is getting  civil-rights training for officers. Cabrera made Wollschlager his  second-in-command, despite being entangled in the 2014 internal  investigation. The investigation concluded Wollschlager drank on duty and ordered suspect burglary arrests.  But the department’s new chief reversed course and cleared  Wollschlager. He left the Biscayne Park force this spring for a command  post in North Bay Village, but was soon let go after news broke about  the indictment of Atesiano and the other officers. Cabrera said he  decided to rehire Wollschlager in June. 

According to the Herald, Atesiano’s conspiracy conviction  carries up to 10 years in prison, though the ex-chief is expected to get  far less time. Two other rights violations carrying up to one year each  will be dismissed. Hopefully, this man who ruined the lives of innocent  men will get the maximum sentence, which is still not enough.