Former Hialeah Police officer convicted of kidnapping homeless man sentenced to 66 months in state prison

By ELITSA BIZIOS, RUBÉN ROSARIO

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    MIAMI, Florida (WSVN) — A former Hialeah Police officer who was found guilty of kidnapping a homeless man was sentenced to 66 months in state prison, followed by five years of probation.

Taking the stand on Wednesday morning, Rafael Otano said he wishes he never went to work that day on December 2022.

“When I arrested Mr. Gutierrez, [I] treated him with respect, the same respect that I treated everybody else that I arrested before,” he said. “No one in my life ever accused me of harming anybody.”

Otano’s wife and mother were also called to the stand on Wednesday.

In Spanish, his wife said Otano is a loving and respectful husband.

Aside from Otano’s wife, a family friend, Placido Rodriguez, also took the stand.

“Day one, since I’ve met him, when he met his wife, I was there during the relationship when he first met, and from day one, he’s just been an incredible kid, he’s just something else,” Rodriguez said. “To sit here and find myself in his position, in going through this for the past year, is just incredible. It’s a hard feeling to see him go through this.”

Otano was accused of kidnapping and beating Jose Ortega Gutierrez along with former officer Lorenzo Orfila, on Dec. 17, 2022. The two drove Gutierrez miles away from a strip mall where he was first apprehended and took him to a remote area where, Gutierrez claimed, they beat him and left him injured and bloodied in the woods.

Gutierrez was later found and helped by another officer.

On Aug. 29, Otano was convicted of kidnapping Gutierrez, but was found not guilty of battery. A judge in September, denied a motion to acquit him, as well as denied him a new trial.

His defense attorney, Michael Pizzi, spoke with 7News in October and said the following, “Obviously, he is disappointed, but without revealing any of the comments, he has faith in God, and he is confident that at the end of the day he will be set free.”

Pizzi plans to file an appeal.

“I’ve never seen a police officer who had more respect for his job and who less deserved to be convicted of a crime or spend one second in jail than Rafael Otano,” he said. “We’re going to go to the Court of Appeals, and this injustice will be overturned. We’re going to file an appeal today; we’re not done yet.”

Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle issued a statement on Otano’s sentencing. She wrote in part that the sentencing “marks a sad day for the Hialeah Police Department and for the entire Miami-Dade law enforcement community. When the jury convicted Otano of the armed kidnapping of a homeless man intended to ‘teach him a lesson,’ it sent out the strongest message possible that this community is a community of laws which govern us all.”

Hialeah Police Chief George Fuente also issued a statement. It reads in part, “The law enforcement community must hold itself accountable and to a higher standard and any officer that violates the public’s trust will face the ramification of their actions.”

Chief Fuente went on to write, “Let me be very clear; the actions that Mr. Otano was found guilty of, do not reflect the men and women of the Hialeah Police Department.”

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