Jesse Scheckner
Opa-locka has again terminated one of its police officers, Sgt. Sergio Perez, for his unsafe actions while in uniform that led to the injury of a fellow cop.
A city press note announced Perez’s firing, which came three years after investigators say he tased another officer, sparking an internal affairs probe that was paused after criminal charges were filed.
The investigation resumed in January, after the charges were dropped, and the Opa-Locka Police Department’s (OLPD) Professional Compliance Unit has since determined that Perez committed multiple department violations.
Mayor John Taylor, City Manager Darvin Williams and Police Chief Kenneth Ottley will be holding a press conference at 10 a.m. on Wednesday to address the matter.
Perez, 37, at one point held the rank of captain, but he was demoted following the Sept. 1, 2021, tasering incident, for which he was arrested on battery charges. He was arrested about a year later for alleged use of force, but was later acquitted.
Opa-locka confirmed Perez’s dismissal Tuesday. It marked the third time he’d been cut from a police force. OLPD quietly terminated him in 2015 for his part in a wrong-way crash that killed four people two years before. It later rehired him and, in 2020, promoted him to lieutenant.
In 2006, Miami Shores axed him before he even donned the village’s police uniform for drag racing at more than 110 mph on Interstate 95.
After the 2013 crash, Local 10 detailed what was shaping up even then to be a dishonorable record of conduct. In 2009, he was accused of punching a woman in the face, causing fractures and requiring that she undergo surgery. In 2010, a man said Perez pulled up in his patrol car, got out and punched him several times. A similar incident allegedly occurred the year after, this time with Perez using a police radio as a weapon.
In each case, Perez was cleared of wrongdoing.
Perhaps all it took for something to finally stick to Perez was for him to target a fellow officer. And that’s what he did at around 2 p.m. on Sept. 1, 2021, according to OLPD records.
That day, the department’s Professional Compliance Unit said Perez deployed a taser inside the OLPD office, striking another cop — Sgt. Michael Steel — in the back, causing bruising.
Det. Mohan Britton detailed the incident in a June 4 memo, based on sworn statements Steel, Perez and others gave in the days following.
Steel told investigators he was sitting at his desk when Perez entered the office. Perez reportedly said he was there to certify Steel with a new Taser 7 device and pointed the nonlethal weapon at him. After briefly trying to involve another officer in his antics, and despite Steel’s admonishment not to shoot him with the taser, Perez fired into Steel’s back before laughing and telling Steel to “stop being a baby.”
“Sgt. Steel indicated Capt. Perez found the situation to be very funny,” Britton wrote.
Feeling discomfort where he was shot, Steel went to the bathroom to examine and photograph his injuries before visiting urgent care.
Steel told investigators he believed others nearby heard the taser deploy and that shortly after he was tased, a secretary in the office called him to say she “heard he cried like a baby” while Perez could be heard laughing in the background.
Investigators spoke with several officers who were in the office that day. Some corroborated some parts, but not all, of Steel’s statement.
In a March 2 statement, Perez admitted to deploying the taser in Steel’s office, but that he interpreted Steel’s responses as horseplay. He said Steel neither verbally refused nor agreed to be tased, which contradicted Steel’s version of the event and what other witnesses said they heard. Hitting Steel with the taser was not intentional, he added.
The Professional Compliance Unit completed an investigation of the incident in June.
In a June 6, 2024, memo to Assistant Police Chief Robin Starks, Capt. John Ryan noted that the department’s use-of-force policies prohibits officers from using their firearms, “less lethal weapons” such as tasers and other defense tactics outside the course of their duties.
They may do so only to effectuate arrests, defend themselves or others, or to cause a person to comply with commands.
In late October 2021, close to two months after the tasing incident, then-OLPD Chief Steven Bareira resigned amid a struggling budget, multiple complaints and allegations that Barreira and then-City Manager John Pate had warned staff they would be fired if they spoke to press about Perez’s actions.
