Two disgraced former police officers have been jailed for a year for their role in a racist framing scheme which involved them blaming an innocent black 16-year-old for four unsolved burglaries to boost their crime stats.
Charlie Dayoub and Raul Fernandez were sentenced on Wednesday in Miami, Florida.
In 2013, they responded to pressure from Biscayne Park Police Chief Raimundo Atesiano to boost their crime solving numbers by making fraudulent arrests.
They were instructed to target 'anyone black' with 'somewhat of a record'.
With this brief, they arrested the teenager, referred to only as TD in the indictment against the cops, for a spate of burglaries they had been unable to solve.
Raul Fernandez (left) and Charlie Dayoub (right) were jailed on Wednesday for a year. They are shown in an August court appearance when they pleaded guilty to fraudulently arresting a black teenager for burglaries he did not commit
Thankfully prosecutors chose not to press charges and the teenager did not have to spend any time in prison.
Dayoub and Fernandez were arrested earlier this year as a result of an investigation into Atesiano's behavior.
The probe was prompted by other officers who complained about the racist scapegoating scheme to local officials.
Atesiano resigned in 2014 when the investigation began.
At first, the officer denied any scheme. They pleaded guilty in August and agreed to work with prosecutors against the chief in order to receive a lesser sentence.
Police chief Raimundo Atesiano told the officers to target 'anyone black walking in the streets with somewhat of a record'. He is awaiting sentencing
They had been facing up to 10 years imprisonment if convicted of conspiracy to violate civil rights under color of law.
Prosecutors dropped that charge in exchange for their cooperation. They each pleaded guilty to violating deprivation of the victim's civil rights.
Guillermo Ravelo, another police officer, pleaded guilty to the same charge earlier this year.
Atesiano changed his plea in September, admitting to conspiring with subordinate officers to violate individuals’ civil rights.
He was facing 11 years behind bars but is now likely to spend only two, at most, in prison. Neither or nor Ravelo have yet been sentenced.
The four cops made up a third of the tiny police department.
While the boy in this case was not sent to prison, one man ended up spending five years in prison and then being deported to Haiti after being arrested as part of the officer's scheme.
He pleaded guilty to avoid the maximum 30 year sentence he was facing.
The man had a lengthy record and had been found with a check from one of the houses he allegedly burgled.
Though he did not come by it legally, prosecutors had no proof that he actually broke into the house it came from and took it.
The tiny police department in Biscayne Park, Florida, only had a few dozen officers. Four were part of the racist scheme
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