The Associated Press
MIAMI (AP) -- Three men concocted a perjury plot to boost the chance of convicting four Miami police officers accused of beating a handcuffed suspect, an indictment unsealed Tuesday alleges.
The government’s opening witness, Armando Rodriguez, was still on the stand earlier this year when he admitted lying. The retrial ended in January with dismissal of the charges and public embarrassment for federal prosecutors.
Alexander Anazco claimed he had been beaten for throwing a rock at a patrol car. Anazco, his father and family friend Rodriguez now are charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice by creating an alibi for the rock-throwing incident. If convicted, father and son could face 10 years in federal prison and the friend five.
Prosecutors dropped the police prosecution but never backed away from Anazco’s allegations, backed by his bloody clothing.
The same prosecutors have won nine convictions out of 13 Miami officers charged with protecting fellow officers by covering up guns planted after four questionable police shootings from 1995 to 1997. Three officers charged in the 1997 Anazco beating were convicted in the shooting cover-ups.