MIAMI (AP) — Authorities say a former police chief and two officers for a small Florida community framed a teen for several burglaries to improve their arrest statistics.
A U.S. attorney’s office news release says former Biscayne Park police Chief Raimundo Atesiano and former Officers Charlie Dayoub and Raul Fernandez were charged Monday with conspiracy to violate civil rights under color of law and deprivation of civil rights. They each face up to 11 years in prison.
An indictment says Atesiano ordered Dayoub and Fernandez to arrest the unnamed 16-year-old in June 2013 to maintain a fictitious 100 percent clearance rate of reported burglaries. Prosecutors say the teen was charged in four unsolved burglaries, even though the former chief and officers knew there was no evidence to support the charges.
It wasn’t known if the chief or officers had attorneys.
