Feb. 06--A suspected credit card thief who was shot during a police take-down in a busy Target parking lot in 2010 is planning to file a federal lawsuit against the Orlando Police Department, his lawyer said Monday.
David Paul, a medical malpractice attorney who is representing Rogelio Cortes, said the suit will seek an untold amount of damages for violating Cortes' federal civil rights. Cortes claims the police department used excessive force when they shot him four times during the Nov. 2010 take-down.
"What happened in this case is unacceptable," Paul said. "It's unacceptable to have police officers who take matters into their own hands, who don't follow the rules and who needlessly endanger the safety of people."
Cortes, 39, was driving a van loaded with two other men and electronics worth thousands of dollars that were purchased with stolen credit cards when he was shot four times by members of the police department's specially trained Tactical Anti Crime Unit. The TAC sergeant who organized the take-down did so while investigating a property crime that involved her own husband's stolen credit card.
At the time there was no policy that prohibited officers from investigating crimes in which family members are involved as victims. A policy against such conduct has since been created.
Cortes initially faced several felony charges, including attempted first-degree murder of a law enforcement officer, but all charges against him have been dropped.
Orlando police declined to comment for this article because the pending litigation.
During the takedown, Sgt. Rhonda Huckelbery and Officer Frank Sikos rode in an unmarked vehicle that rammed Cortes' mini-van from behind while other officers tried to block him in front. The takedown was not executed properly, and the van lurched forward because the front cars were not in position.
The officers in front of Cortes' van thought he was trying to ram them and opened fire. Target video surveillance shows Sikos' unmarked car pushing the van forward.
Sikos' sworn statement contradicted the video evidence, suggesting Cortes rammed officers and squealed his tires in an effort to escape.
"The internal affairs report really did not investigate the true root causes of why this happened," Paul said. "They are supposed to be a check-and-balance on the police, and rather than check and balance, they basically rubber stamp a lot of things that happened."
Paul points to Huckelbery's conflict of interest by opening the investigation and what he characterized as Sikos' false statements about what happened.
Neither Sikos nor Huckelbery were disciplined for their role in the take-down.
"There needs to be accountability," Paul said. "It's an issue of public safety and it's an issue of the public having confidence that there will be accountability when the police officers go in a different direction than public safety."
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Copyright 2012 - The Orlando Sentinel, Fla.
