The legal power of Florida police officers is being tested in a South Florida courtroom as a former Hialeah police officer fights to overturn his kidnapping conviction.
Rafael Otano is serving a five-year prison sentence after jurors found him guilty of kidnapping a homeless man in 2022. Prosecutors said Otano and another officer, Lorenzo Orfila, arrested José Ortega Gutierrez outside of a shopping plaza after a business owner complained he was disturbing the peace.
Instead of bringing Ortega Gutierrez to the jail, prosecutors argued in trial two years ago that the officers drove him to a remote location, beat him, and failed to document it. GPS records later placed the officers near the dump site, according to the trial evidence…