Judge ordered new trial for Miami Beach cop convicted in beating. Prosecutors appeal

In March, a jury found Miami Beach Police Officer Kevin Perez guilty of simple battery for taking part in the beating of a tourist during his arrest in a hotel lobby. The incident was recorded on cellphone video and drew worldwide attention — and condemnation.

But at sentencing on May 26, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Alberto Milian tossed the verdict and granted Perez, 26, a new trial over a technicality. The judge said the jury should have been made aware that the state planned to drop charges against Dalonta Crudup, the man beaten by police, if the officer was found guilty.

The state did just that a month after the Perez verdict, dropping charges of fleeing from and assaulting police officers against Crudup, who was considered a key but difficult witness who often butted heads with defense attorneys.

At the planned sentencing, Milian said it almost appeared as if there was a “quid pro quo” and that the defense didn’t have the benefit of cross-examining Crudup about “the benefit he was going to receive.”

The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office objected and filed an appeal, arguing there was no such arrangement and the judge was wrong to overturn the verdict.

On Wednesday, Milian agreed with a request from prosecutors to delay any new trial at least 90 days until its clear whether the appeals court will issue an opinion on the decision to give Perez another shot at defending himself.

Asked to comment on the appeal, Miami-Dade State Attorney Spokesman Ed Griffith referred back to Assistant State Attorney Sandra Miller-Batiste’s response to Milian’s decision in court. She said other prosecutors were handling the Crudup case as a separate issue, denied there was any deal and she had no idea why the charges against him were dropped.

“I don’t know what that was. I didn’t question it and I had a responsibility to stay out of it because of my position in this case,” she told the judge. “So there was no quid pro quo for us to Mr. Crudup.”

Robert Buschel, the attorney for the Miami Beach officer, had filed motion for a mistrial over that Milian granted. He said the judge did the right thing when he agreed to overturn the decision and set another trial.

“It smacks of a deal and it should have been disclosed,” he said.

Minor incident turned into chase

The incident that led to the arrest of Crudup and five Miami Beach police officers began with a scene that had both police and Crudup’s friends laughing out loud. Parked on his scooter on barricaded Collins Avenue and Ninth Street on a warm July night in 2021, Crudup toppled over. As he got up, both friends and the police were laughing at him. But before Crudup drove off, he raised his middle finger to the cops.

Headed on his scooter towards his family’s hotel room at the Royal Palm at 1545 Collins Ave., Crudup kept encountering police on bicycles as he made his way up an alley. Surveillance video shows an officer throwing his bike forward attempting to stop Crudup. Another officer testified that during what turned into a chase, Crudup rode his scooter over his foot. When Crudup neared the hotel, a large white SUV forced him off the road.

So he abandoned the scooter and ran into the hotel elevator. But before the door closed, an officer caught up to him with his weapon drawn and ordered him to the ground. Hotel surveillance video supported Crudup’s claim that he obeyed police orders. Still, almost two dozen cops streamed into the hotel lobby and while he was on the ground, prosecutors said, Perez kicked him, picked him up by his arm while he was handcuffed and slammed his head to the ground, gashing his chin and creating a pool of blood.

Another visitor who didn’t know Crudup saw the commotion in the lobby and began recording it on his cellphone. When police noticed what Khalid Vaughn was doing, several officers approached and struck him, police body camera footage showed.

Judge had previously dropped one charge

Crudup was a far-from-perfect witness. He had to be subpoenaed to testify. He was arrested in Washington D.C. and in Kentucky after he was charged in the Miami incident. Judge Milian granted the defense the right to discuss those arrests at trial. And by the time the Perez verdict was read, Crudup was long gone.

As for overturning the jury’s verdict, it wasn’t completely unexpected from Milian. During the trial he made the unusual move of dropping Perez’s charge from a felony and a possible five-year sentence, to a lesser misdemeanor. The judge also repeatedly told jurors that the state failed to prove serious bodily injury to Crudup, a requirement for a felony charge and that police could legally use any force necessary to subdue a fleeing felon.

“He [Crudup] just got a deal to begin with,” said Buschel, Perez’s attorney. “The judge is correct. He should have granted a new trial.”