A Florida man who says a police detective wrongfully arrested him for violating a restraining order while having a romantic relationship with his ex-girlfriend is suing the officer and the Homestead Police Department.
In his lawsuit filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court on March 3, Julio Trejo claims that Pedro Perez, 41, then a detective with the department, conspired with Lian Marie Sierra, 39, his former partner and the mother of his three children, to arrest him without probable cause on July 14, 2023, the day of a court hearing regarding custody of the children.
Perez “had a personal and intimate relationship” with Sierra that caused a conflict of interest and bias that affected his judgment and led to the false arrest, the complaint says.
Trejo contends that text messages he found on his son’s Apple iWatch, which used to belong to his ex, reveal both the intimate nature of her relationship with Perez as well as their plot to have him arrested amid a contentious custody battle.
Dozens of text conversations between Perez and Sierra over three weeks in June and July of 2023 suggested the pair were attracted to each other, reported The Florida Bulldog.
On June 14, 2023, Sierra accused Trejo of violating a temporary restraining order she had obtained two weeks earlier, claiming that he had made death threats against her and her family following a dispute over his alleged refusal to drop off their three children with her relatives. Sierra said he had sent her harassing texts from an unknown cell number and that he drove by her house, in violation of the order.
Det. Perez was assigned the case on June 20, and on June 27, the two flirtily texted about how they had enjoyed getting together.
“You killed me tho,” Perez texted. “I killed you, how, lol,” Sierra responded. “You know, pleeeease, and you smelled great,” Perez texted back.
A few hours later, Perez texted, “I think next time ain’t even gonna mention the kiss and just kiss you. Thoughts? Blink once for yes and twice for no.” Sierra responded with a winking face emoji.
On July 3, 2023, after meeting during his break, Perez texted Sierra: “Glad we got that kiss out of the way. Hope it [was] to your liking, I definitely did.” Her reply: “It was to my liking.”
Two days after apparently locking lips, Sierra expressed frustration that Trejo had not been jailed yet. Perez texted back: “You tell me if you want me to do it sooner. I was waiting because you told me to wait,” followed by, “So do you want me to get him next Friday?”
Sierra replied: “Can you do it Friday morning [so] that way he misses his hearing and the judge will grant the restraining Order?”
On July 14, 2023, Perez arrested Trejo for aggravated stalking at a courthouse in Homestead after a judge extended the temporary restraining order for one year.
The complaint alleges the texts demonstrate that Perez and the Homestead Police Department “orchestrated” the false arrest and malicious prosecution of Trejo despite a lack of probable cause and in violation of his constitutional right to be free of unreasonable searches and seizures.
Trejo admitted that he did send Sierra two harassing texts, but denied that it was his white Chevy Tahoe driving past her house at 3:45 a.m. when the TRO was in effect. His attorney argues that it could have been Perez, who also owned a white Chevy Tahoe at the time.
Months after his arrest, Trejo discovered some of the romantic text exchanges on his son’s Apple watch and filed a complaint with the police department over his arrest and the suspected misconduct of Perez, according to the Miami New Times.
According to the lawsuit, an internal affairs (IA) report shows Perez and Sierra exchanged 476 text messages on his department-issued cellphone from June 27 to July 10, 2023, when Sierra appeared to have second thoughts about being romantically involved with Perez after finding out he was married.
“I’m not okay hanging out with married men,” she wrote. “You’re cool and super easy to talk to, but I don’t want to get tangled,” and suggested they just be friends.
Perez replied: “But my ideas of being friends with you is just different than what you want so it’s just gonna frustrate us both lol,” adding, “I guess I was just chasing something that wasn’t there.”
Following a five-month investigation, the department found that Perez had exhibited conduct unbecoming of an officer and violated policies related to professional duty and telephone use. He was suspended without pay for three days and demoted to uniform patrol duty last year.
Due to Perez’s misconduct and Sierra’s unwillingness to cooperate at that point (she and Trejo briefly reconciled in November), in January of 2024, the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office announced it had dropped the charges against Trejo, even though prosecutors believed there was probable cause for his arrest.
“Detective Perez had poor judgment, which resulted in violation of the below policies, causing the partial responsibility of the criminal case being dismissed, in addition to tarnishing the reputation that this police department has built over the years,” Homestead Police Col. Scott Kennedy wrote in a memo to then-Chief Alexander Rolle.
In April 2024, Perez provided a sworn statement to Homestead Police Capt. Fernando Morales admitted that he and Sierra had developed a personal relationship but didn’t feel he had to remove himself from the case, the internal affairs report states. However, he acknowledged that, in hindsight, he should have told his supervisors about the relationship.
Regarding his detention of Trejo during a court appearance, Perez told IA investigators that arresting subjects during court hearings is common practice. He denied that his Chevy Tahoe had driven by Sierra’s house in June 2023 and said that he had developed a personal relationship with her because she was fearful and had sought his advice.
“With domestic cases, a lot of times you need to build a rapport with the victim, and it becomes difficult because they, man or woman, are going through a lot of emotional things that they need to share and need to get advice and what course of action they could take,” he said in his interview.
“Det. Perez said he understood the situation with Ms. Sierra created a problem for prosecutors,” the IA report states. “And that the situation would have been better if he would have turned over the case to another detective.”
Morales said he did not find evidence in the text messages to validate Trejo’s claim that he was “set up.”
In a statement responding to the investigation report, Perez, who has worked for the Homestead PD since 2005, and was a detective in the general investigation unit before his demotion, said he “respectfully disagrees with the severity of the discipline being recommended” and felt his actions neither warranted a job reassignment nor amounted to conduct unbecoming an officer.
In a statement to the chief, he said he conducted a “thorough, complete and unbiased investigation” and “assisted the victim in every way possible.”
The lawsuit claims that as a result of his false arrest, Trejo has suffered significant emotional distress, reputational harm and financial losses, and seeks a jury trial to determine damages in excess of $1 million.
Trejo told local Fox affiliate WSVN on Monday that while the criminal case was eventually dropped, he spent five days in jail and wore an ankle monitor for two months.
“I’ve lost a lot through all of this,” he said. “I’ve lost my business. I’ve lost my relationship I had with my children.”
His attorney, Michael Pizzi, said Perez had betrayed his oath of duty as a police officer.
“You have a police officer selling his badge, selling his police enforcement powers and agreeing to arrest somebody and make him lose his children and lose his liberty all so that he could get a kiss,” he said.
The Homestead Police Department told reporters it will make no further comments on the case due to the pending litigation.
