Court of Appeals overturns conviction of former Miami police officer who beat a black woman after she called police for help when a white neighbor pointed a gun at her

An appeals court overturned the conviction of a former Miami police officer found guilty of beating a Black woman in 2019 after she called police for help when her white neighbor pointed a shotgun at her.

Alejandro Giraldo, who once worked as a field training officer for the Miami Police Department, was convicted on March 5, 2019, of battery and misconduct within the arrest of 31-year-old Dyma Loving.

Loving called 911 the identical day after a white neighbor pointed a shotgun at her and her friend, Adrianna Greene. A neighbor, Frank Tumm, began calling them “whores” and using racial slurs as they walked on the sidewalk past his house. According to police body camera footage, when the ladies screamed and called him a “son of a bitch,” he grabbed a gun and pointed it at them.

Cellphone and body camera footage shows multiple officers responding to the decision. One of the officers questioned Tumm, who said he never had a gun. According to reports, he was released the identical day and arrested only a week later, on March 12, when he was charged with assault with a deadly weapon.

As Giraldo interviewed each women, who vividly described their encounter with their neighbor, he began threatening to commit Loving to a mental hospital and have her arrested if she didn’t “rest.” When Loving tries to clarify that she must call her children, Giraldo grabs her, pushes her against a fence and puts his arm around her head to push her to the bottom, the video shows.

Loving was initially charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. Both charges were dropped two weeks after the arrest.

Giraldo’s arrest report, which included his misconduct plea, was crucial to the appeals court’s decision to vacate his conviction.

In the report, he wrote that “Love began to behave aggressively and was disobedient
orders” and through his meeting she became “even more nervous, very irritated and uncooperative.”

“SM. Loving began shouting at us, causing a scene in a residential area. Ms. Loving was asked several times to stop shouting and cooperate. Ms. Loving was informed that the investigation was discontinued due to her screaming and aggressive behavior” – Giraldo – it was written within the report.

The appeals court judges ruled that prosecutors didn’t present a sufficient objective argument to support their claim that Giraldo intentionally falsified the arrest report. They found that Giraldo’s “subjective interpretation” of Loving’s behavior through the meeting was not adequately rebutted and subsequently intent to jot down false statements couldn’t be proven.

“Giraldo’s subjective account of the events depicted does not rise to the level of knowledge or deliberate falsification,” the three-judge panel wrote in its opinion. “After reviewing the footage, it can be concluded that Giraldo’s description is not manifestly false or inaccurate. (…) Because Giraldo’s subjective interpretation was not clearly disproved by objective facts, it did not – and could not – rise to the level of intentional falsity.”

The three-judge panel of Florida’s Third District Court of Appeals in Miami further argued that because prosecutors told the trial court that the false arrest report charge helped establish the battery charge, the second charge was challenged.

“The trial court erred in denying Giraldo’s motions for a judgment of acquittal. “The State acknowledged at the oral hearing that if the motion for acquittal by reason of official misconduct had been granted, it should not have initiated a count of beatings because the arrest would have been lawful,” the judges wrote. “We therefore set aside the final conviction and sentence and forward the motion for a judgment of acquittal in both cases.”

The court dismissed each his misconduct and the battery charges.

Giraldo’s attorney said he was “excited and satisfied” with the ruling. State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle expressed disappointment.

“Based on the Court’s ruling, we cannot reopen the case. While we’re disillusioned by the Court’s decision, we understand and respect its decision,” Rundle said: according to Local 10. “Police officers have a very difficult job and hindsight is 20/20. As a result, the law gives them great latitude, making it difficult to prosecute them for their conduct and actions while performing their official duties.”

Giraldo was fired from the Miami Police Department and convicted on June 22, 2022, on charges stemming from Loving’s arrest. He was sentenced to 364 days in prison and 18 months probation. He was released on bail on the same day his prison sentence began.

His former boss told NBC6 he was surprised by the ruling overturning Giraldo’s conviction.

“While I respect the District Court of Appeals’ decision, I am surprised,” former Miami-Dade Police Director Juan Perez said in a statement: according to NBC6. “The jury, not the state’s attorney, decided the guilty verdict.”

The Miami Herald reports that Giraldo is predicted to attempt to regain his position as a police officer. To accomplish that, he might want to reapply for recertification as a state police officer.