The Third District Court of Appeal has overturned the 2022 official misconduct and battery conviction of a Miami-Dade police officer who was seen on body camera footage in 2019 roughly taking down a woman who had called police because a neighbor pointed a shotgun at her.
The court ruled there's no proof the Alejandro Giraldo intentionally falsified a report because of "subjective interpretation" and the battery count should have been dropped.
Giraldo's attorney, Andre Rouviere says, "We are ecstatic, and we are satisfied that the system works."
They'll now try to get Giraldo's job back.
Because of the appeal, he was not required to serve his 364 days jail sentence.
Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle released this statement: “As you know, the Third District Court of Appeal reversed the conviction of Officer Giraldo. Based on the Court’s direction, we are unable to retry the case. Though we are disappointed by the Court’s decision, we understand and respect their conclusion. Police officers have a very difficult job and hindsight is 20/20. As a result, the law gives them a great deal of latitude, making it difficult to prosecute them for their behavior and actions while performing their duties.”