An attorney for the former Hialeah police officer convicted of kidnapping a homeless man urged an appeals court on Tuesday to reverse the ex-cop’s conviction, arguing that his prosecution shouldn’t have occurred because the victim was lawfully arrested.
Michael Davis, the lawyer for 30-year-old Rafael Otano, said the kidnapping prosecution should have ended once prosecutors determined during the trial that officers had probable cause to arrest the victim. He also requested that the 3rd District Court of Appeals grant Otano a new trial.
In August2023, Otano was found guilty of the armed kidnapping of Jose Ortega-Gutierrez, a man known to police and considered a nuisance by shopkeepers at a Hialeah strip mall. Otano was sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison and is being held at Wakulla Correctional Institution, a medium-security facility just outside Tallahassee…