Trial is set for today for 11 Miami officers
They're accused of covering up evidence in 4 police shootings
01/06/2003
MIAMI - Based on information from two retired officers who pleaded guilty to conspiracy in September 2001, 11 other officers were indicted on federal corruption charges alleging cover-ups in four police shootings in which three men were killed.
The 11 were scheduled to go on trial Monday on charges of planting guns, manipulating evidence or covering up crimes by others in a series of questionable shootings. The two who pleaded guilty are slated as the prosecution's star witnesses.
The case was the city's worst police scandal since the 1980s, when the so-called Miami River Cops stole cocaine from drug traffickers and sold the drug themselves. More than 100 officers were arrested, fired or disciplined in that case.
"The history of Miami has been characterized by ugly police-community relations," said Howard Simon, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida. "There is a loss of confidence, if not outright hostility, by the minority community because of the great number of shootings of typically unarmed black young men."
The four Miami shootings involved the deaths of three black men and the wounding of a fourth, plus one in which a man escaped injury.
In all of the cases, prosecutors say, guns were planted to make it look as if the three robbery suspects, a drug suspect and a homeless man were armed.
An attorney for two of the indicted officers said the shootings were justified.
"The justifiable use of force and deadly force laws have been in existence for years," Richard Sharpstein said.
The federal trial is expected to last three to five months. No state charges were filed.
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