FLORIDA
A former police officer with the Village of Biscayne Park was indicted for deprivation of civil rights under color of law against two suspects on separate occasions, officials announced Friday.
Guillermo Ravelo, 37, of Miami, Florida, is charged with depriving persons of their civil rights under color of law and falsifying records in a federal investigation.
If convicted of all charges, Ravelo faces a statutory maximum sentence of 60 years in prison.
According to the allegations contained in the indictment, on April 7, 2013, officer Ravelo responded to a request for assistance from another Biscayne Park police officer who had conducted a traffic stop.
During the arrest of the driver, officer Ravelo struck the driver with his fist.
In a separate incident, on June 14, 2013, while still employed as a police officer with the Biscayne Park Police Department, officer Ravelo responded to a call concerning an ongoing vehicle burglary in Biscayne Park and struck the suspect with a blunt object.
Both assaults resulted in bodily injury, and on both occasions, officer Ravelo falsified the police reports by misstating the circumstances of the arrests and by omitting that he struck both of the victims.
The defendant is presumed innocent unless he is found guilty.