The way Sergio Perez sees it, he should not have been fired this week from the Opa-locka Police Department in South Florida for tasering a fellow officer as a practical joke.
That was just a minor incident, after all. At least compared to other incidents he has committed over almost two decades working for one of the most corrupt police departments in Miami-Dade County, including getting charged with battery for dragging a mentally ill teen down the stairs as well as getting fired and rehired after chasing a car down the wrong way on the interstate – leading to the death of four innocent people in a separate car.
The tasering incident took place on Sept. 1, 2021, when Perez was a captain and walked into Sgt. Michael Steel’s office pointed a Taser at him, asking if he wanted to be certified in using the Taser, which would have required Perez to Taser him.
Perez later told investigators he was only joking, describing his behavior that day as “camaraderie building.”
“Captain, don’t do it,” Steel pleaded as he squirmed in his chair, but Perez tasered him anyway. The prongs, however, did not penetrate his body because they were covered in velcro for training purposes.
“Stop acting like a baby. You know that didn’t hurt,” Perez told him while laughing in amusement, according to the Miami Herald which reviewed the internal affairs documents.
But Steel was not amused and took himself to urgent care to get checked out. He also reported the incident to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which led to Perez getting charged with misdemeanor battery in January 2022.
However, the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office dismissed the charge in January 2023 after it was revealed that Steel told doctors at the urgent care that Perez had tasered him by accident, contradicting his statements to investigators that he was deliberately tasered.
But Steel had already been fired in October 2022 for “grave concerns regarding legal implications” of retaining him, according to documents reviewed by NBC Miami.
And now Perez has been fired after a lengthy internal affairs investigation determined Perez violated seven departmental policies by tasering his subordinate.
“Mr. Perez’s actions violated the trust placed in him by our city and raises considerable doubts about his ability to be trusted with the powers we grant to our police officers here in the great city of Opa-locka,” said City Manager Darvin Williams during a press conference Wednesday.
But Perez is claiming he was fired for reporting corruption within the department, which is why he is confident he will be rehired. And if history is any indicator, he will likely succeed.
“Unfortunately, the police chief and the city manager have turned a blind eye to the corruption I have reported,” Perez told the Miami Herald.
Troubled Police Department
Despite Perez’s troubled past, he is not the worst cop to have worked for the Opa-Locka Police Department, which patrols a mostly Black municipality with a population of fewer than 20,000 people. Opa-locka encompasses an area of 4.1 square miles and has one of the highest poverty rates in the country.
That honor goes to German Bosque, who was recognized by national media as “Florida’s Worst Cop” when it was revealed he had been arrested and cleared three times as well as fired and rehired six times before he was fired a final time in 2021.
Bosque had been working for the Opa-locka Police Department for 15 years by the time Perez was hired in 2008, but despite a 23-year age difference, the two had much in common.
Both had been kicked out of police academies before eventually graduating, and both were fired from their first jobs at local police agencies before they were hired by the Opa-locka Police Department.
Perez was kicked out of the academy in 2006 following an arrest for impersonating an officer. He was then hired by the Miami Shores Police Department but fired after he was arrested for drag racing while off-duty in 2006, according to Local 10.
Bosque was also kicked out of the academy in 1990 for impersonating a police officer after he was caught carrying a fake badge. He had been working as a dispatcher for the Virginia Gardens Police Department, hoping to be hired as an officer after graduating, but he ended up fired because of the arrest. The charges, however, were eventually dismissed.
Both officers found a home in Opa-locka, where they earned reputations as abusive cops.
Troubled History
In April 2013 while Perez was on patrol, he attempted to pull over a car for making an illegal right turn, but the driver of the car, Willie Dumel, tried to elude him by driving the wrong way on Interstate 95, prompting Perez to pursue him on the interstate.
Dumel ended up plowing head-on into a car with four tourists, killing them instantly.
Perez was fired after an internal affairs investigation determined that he had violated departmental policy by pursuing the car the wrong way on the interstate, but he was later rehired.
Then, in 2022, he was arrested on a charge of misdemeanor battery stemming from a 2020 incident where he and another officer were caught on video dragging a mentally ill teen whose feet and hands were already bound down concrete steps in front of the home. But a jury acquitted him earlier this year.
Perez plans to challenge the latest termination through his union’s collective bargaining arbitration process as he has done in the past, and his attorney, Rick Diaz, said he plans to sue the city.
“I think the city of Opa-locka will live to regret the decision of firing him,” Diaz told the Herald.
“I hope they have a big insurance policy or a lot of money in reserve.”
