The Associated Press
MIAMI (AP) -- Wives, ex-supervisors and a suburban city’s manager pleaded for leniency Thursday for three Miami police officers convicted of planting guns on unarmed suspects or lying about their actions.
Officers Jesse Aguero, Oscar Ronda and Jorge Castello were praised by several character witnesses hoping to persuade U.S. District Judge Alan Gold that the men deserved light sentences.
Barbara Ronda told the judge that her husband has instilled in their five children “important moral values. He is the main support for our family. My husband is the glue that bonds our family together.”
Carmen Aguero called her husband the “most honest person that I know. He is a wonderful father. I beg you not to take a father away from his family. He has always maintained the innocence of these charges.”
Lt. Milady Irizarry called Castello a “dedicated” officer and family man.
“He has a heart like a child,” she said.
The case involves four questionable police shootings that left three men dead from 1995 to 1997. Aguero, Ronda, Castello and another officer, Art Beguiristain, were convicted in April on obstruction of justice and conspiracy charges. Beguiristain is recovering from gall bladder surgery, and Gold says he will hold a hearing for him next month before sentencing the men.
Three other officers were acquitted, and two of them are back at work. Four others face retrial after the jury deadlocked on their charges.
Aguero, on the force for 17 years, is the only officer in the group to be fired. He faces the prosecution’s toughest request for nine to 11 years in prison. Prosecutors want sentences of six to eight years for Beguiristain and four to five year sentences for Castello and Ronda.
The officers’ attorneys are seeking six- to 18-month sentences, preferably on house arrest or probation. They say the men might be injured by fellow inmates if they are imprisoned.
But prosecutor Curtis Miner told the judge that out of 801 former police officers in the federal prison system, only 27 are in protective custody because of threats.
A parade of witnesses stepped forward Thursday to defend the three officers. No one spoke against them.
Miami police Capt. Tony Rodriguez said that he had known Ronda for 15 years and called him “an outstanding officer of unusual dedication, honesty and integrity.”
He said he feared that the officers would be hurt if they went to prison. He told the judge that one former Miami police officer who went to prison was stabbed with a shank and almost died.
West Miami City Manager Yolanda Aguilar said that she has been close friends with Aguero and his family for 20 years.
“I know Jesse Aguero to be a man of integrity, honesty and a good husband,” she said.