A Broward judge is giving lawyers two-and-a-half weeks to submit their “stand your ground” arguments for the three remaining defendants charged with manslaughter in the 2019 death of a UPS driver kidnapped by armed robbers in Miramar.
Broward Circuit Judge Ernest Kollra ruled last year that Jose Mateo should not be subject to prosecution because he was acting lawfully in the belief that his use of force was necessary to end a threat caused by two robber-kidnappers who instigated the confrontation.
The kidnappers, Lamar Alexander and Ronnie Jerome Hill, died in the shootout, but so did their victim, UPS driver Frank Ordoñez, 27, and Richard Cutshaw, 70, a motorist in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Mateo and fellow Miami-Dade Police Officers Rodolfo Mirabal, Richard Santiesteban and Leslie Lee were charged with manslaughter in Ordoñez’s death. Mirabal is also charged with manslaughter in Cutshaw’s death. The officers are using the same argument as Mateo, hoping for the same result.
Over the last two weeks, Kollra has listened to testimony from numerous prosecution witnesses, including experts on the use of force. And on Wednesday he heard directly from Lee, who offered a firsthand account of the events leading up to the tragic shooting.
Lee said he opened fire to protect Ordoñez and other civilians who might be in harm’s way. Alexander and Hill kidnapped Ordoñez after robbing a Coral Gables jewelry store on Dec. 5, 2019. They led police on a chase that ended at a crowded Miramar intersection.
Prosecutor Chuck Morton argued at Mateo’s stand-your-ground hearing that the officers used a reckless and disproportionate amount of force in the confrontation, resulting in avoidable loss of life.
But Mateo’s lawyers offered a counterargument his colleagues are expected to echo in their written closing arguments: In the middle of the standoff, the officers took the action they believed to be necessary to save lives.
The case appears to be the first time the law has been invoked by a police officer to block a prosecution when the victim is not the intended target of the shooting.
The Broward State Attorney’s Office is appealing Kollra’s ruling in Mateo’s case. Kollra did not say when he would rule for the others.
The Mateo ruling was not the first time Broward broke new ground in applying the Stand Your Ground law to law enforcement officers.
A Broward Sheriff’s deputy, Peter Peraza, was the first to successfully invoke “stand your ground” to block a prosecution. Before Peraza’s 2013 manslaughter case, the law was understood to apply only to civilians invoking the right to self-defense. Peraza successfully argued that the law applied to anyone, including law enforcement officers. The Florida Supreme Court ruled in his favor in 2018.
Rafael Olmeda can be reached at rolmeda@sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4457.
