Lawsuit alleges ‘massive’ cover-up, lies in Hialeah police chase and killing of motorist

Four years ago, Lester Machado led Hialeah police on a car chase that ended when he crashed into a concrete Metrorail column. Six police officers fired a staggering 122 bullets, killing Machado inside his car.

The reason for the traffic stop in the first place? The Hialeah cop who tried pulling over Machado said his Honda Accord had a broken tag light.

But lawyers for his family now claim that the officer, Teannie Hernandez, lied about the reason for the stop in October 2017. The evidence: when lawyers had the Honda, still in police custody, recently hooked up to a battery, the tag light worked perfectly, according to a newly updated lawsuit filed in federal court.

“In fact, despite the heavy collision to the Honda’s rear end, all of the lights on the back of the Machado vehicle, brake lights, tag lights, and back up lights are fully functional to this day,” the lawsuit said.

It’s but one of several new troubling allegations outlined in the amended lawsuit filed this week in Miami federal court.

The new complaint also alleges that key video surveillance of the chase and shooting has vanished while in police custody, and that Machado was denied crucial medical treatment because Hialeah Fire-Rescue and Miami-Dade Fire-Rescue could not decide who jurisdiction. Miami-Dade Fire-Rescue eventually responded to the scene on Northwest 79th Street, where Machado was pronounced dead.

“For more than ten minutes, as Machado was bleeding out and dying, this ridiculous argument ensued,” said the lawsuit.

The federal lawsuit was originally filed against Hialeah and a slew of officers in October 2019, alleging Hialeah police violated Machado’s civil rights and inflicted a wrongful death. The amended complaint was filed this week after the family’s lawyers pored over video and radio dispatch recordings, crime scene evidence and interviewed dozens of police personnel during depositions. One of the key depositions was that of former Hialeah Officer Maria Benitez, who was involved in the chase and later told the lawyers about what she believed were efforts to obfuscate what happened that night.

Amended Complaint

The lawsuit was filed by Yolaisy Perez, Machado’s mother, and requests $30 million in damages. Lawyers for Hialeah and the officers declined to discuss specific allegations. Prosecutors have already cleared the officers of criminal wrongdoing.

“The City of Hialeah does not provide any comments on matters in litigation,” said attorney Devang Desai, who is representing the city. “The City of Hialeah looks forward to a fair trial of the facts in a court of law where we will vigorously defend the actions of our client and the brave men and women in law enforcement.”

Robert Switkes, who is representing a group of officers, including Hernandez, said in a statement: “Under the facts of this case, the actions of the officers were entirely justified and appropriate. We look forward to presenting the facts to the court and are confident that at the conclusion of the legal proceedings all of the officers will be fully vindicated.”

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The chain of events that led to Machado’s death started on Oct. 1, 2017, shortly at 3:47 a.m. as he drove his white Honda Accord south on East Eighth Avenue. Officer Hernandez tried pulling him over but he did not stop.

Another officer then falsely claimed that Machado “attempted to ram” his police car, according to the lawsuit. According to radio dispatches, a police sergeant at that point radioed out to cancel the pursuit. Hialeah police, like most departments, has a policy of not pursuing cars for minor traffic infractions. “Do not chase the vehicle,” a dispatcher repeated.

But then another officer got on the radio and falsely reported that the Honda “had actually struck” one of the police cars, the lawsuit said. Lt. Antonio Luis reversed the sergeant’s order and instructed his officers to “proceed.”

The chase was on. Machado drove into a Mobil gas station. A Hialeah police officer, Esteban Holland, pulled in as Machado was pulling out. “He rammed my unit. He rammed my unit,” Holland radioed.

The station’s video surveillance, however, showed the front of Holland’s car grazed Machado’s side as he turned right. Prosecutors would later say they would not characterize it as ramming but said black marks on Machado’s Honda “were consistent with a sideswiping of the police vehicle.”

Chase through Hialeah

The pursuit continued, winding through East Hialeah. Next, police said, he hit the car of Officer Maria Benitez, who had stopped her cruiser in the street to force him to stop.

Machado backed up, hitting another Hialeah police cruiser, then drove around Benitez’s car, nearly hitting her and Hernandez, who were now on foot. “Both officers jumped out of the way to avoid getting hit,” prosecutors said in their final memo on the case.

It was at that point that one officer on the scene, Jose Abel, fired the first shots at Machado as he sped off. Abel fired through his own windshield. Investigators could not determine if his bullets struck Machado’s car.

The chase continued. According to the lawsuit, one officer even began firing at the moving car from inside his speeding car, with Lt. Luis conducting a dangerous “PIT maneuver,” a tactic in which a police car bumps the back of a suspect’s car and accelerates in order to cause it to lose control. That’s what happened: Luis hit the Honda’s right-rear bumper, causing it to lose control, spin counter-clockwise and crash into the Metrorail column on Northwest 79th Street near 35th Avenue.

The surveillance video shows the Hialeah cop cars quickly closed in and gunfire rang out almost immediately, striking the disabled car more than 100 times. In all, the chase had lasted about 10 minutes.

“During this entire episode, The Honda could not possibly be used as a deadly weapon as when it hit the Metrorail column it was visibly disabled with its rear axle partially detached and all of its airbags deployed,” according to the lawsuit filed by lawyers Roberto Pertiera, Domingo Rodriguez and Rick Diaz.

Prosecutors cleared the officers involved in Machado’s death of any criminal charges, primarily because of Florida’s “Fleeing Felon” law. The long-criticized law allows police officers to use deadly force against fleeing felons who might be a harm to the public.

Prosecutors said the shooting was justified under criminal law because Machado committed several felonies, including leading cops on a chase, and nearly hitting several officers on foot and in their cars, which constitutes aggravated battery.

“The officers had a lawful right to try and stop Lester Machado for his traffic offense and arrest him when he willfully fled and escalated his conduct to that which endangered the lives of the officers and citizens on the road,” the State Attorney’s Office wrote in its final report on the case in 2018.

But lawyers for Machado’s family say Hialeah police “tricked” the State Attorney’s Office while engaging in a “massive and extensive cover-up to protect the shooters and witness officers from potential criminal charges, administrative charges, and civil liability.”

Aftermath

In the wake of the shooting, one officer, Benitez, would tell lawyers that the department scrambled to try and make the shooting look good.

Benitez, in a deposition, said that in the minutes soon after the shooting, Hernandez admitted to her that she had no probable cause to stop the Honda. “I’ll just say the tag light was out,” Hernandez said, according to Benitez. “I’ll also say he was swerving across lanes.”

Hernandez, the lawsuit alleges, only pulled Machado over to boost her arrest statistics before a yearly performance evaluation.

Benitez, who was fired from the Hialeah police department for unrelated reasons, also claimed that she was “criticized by her colleagues” for not telling investigators Machado “appeared to have a gun.” “Benitez simply refused to lie because it was not true,” the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit also accuses Hialeah police of purposefully doing a shoddy investigation, failing to get all surveillance video from many businesses along the chase route and allowing officers to coordinate their stories before interviews for a shooting reconstruction five days later.

Another key issue: surveillance video from Hialeah Hospital, which captured a portion of the chase and the first shooting scene on 25th Street. A Hialeah detective said the video “had no value” because it was grainy and washed out by lights.

But Charlie Rodriguez, a retired Hialeah cop and the security director for the hospital, told lawyers that the footage offered a clear version of what happened, one that differed from how officers described it, according to the lawsuit. But two CD copies of the video included in the Hialeah case file, according to the lawsuit, were not the same ones turned over by Rodriguez.

The two “placebo” discs in the case file have no videos on them, according to the lawsuit.