MIAMI – It was Halloween night in Coconut Grove. There was kicking and punching. But it was officers from the Miami police gang unit doing the hitting, witnesses said.
Miami Police Department Officer Michael Cadavid was there. His record of alleged abusive policing was under question after the death of Delbert Rodriguez this week.
The 2010 incident is one of many that were prompting some Miami police officers to question if the Dec. 5 incident was a show of overly aggressive policing. It's up to internal affairs to decide. That Halloween four years ago, the witnesses outnumbered the police officers.
"Hey, that's abuse. That's abuse," a man in the crowd said. There were dozens dressed in costume surrounding the police officers, as they were detaining people. An officer pulled out a witness from the circle and threw him on the ground.
Another man shouted in Spanish: "Abusador! Abusador!" Several witnesses filmed the incident four years ago. Cadavid was one of the officers penalized after a YouTube video prompted an investigation.
Cadavid is under investigation again. Rodriguez died at Jackson Memorial Hospital days after Cadavid ran him over. The 21-year-old graffiti writer was running away from police after officers spotted him vandalizing private property about 2 a.m. Dec. 5 in Miami's Wynwood neighborhood.
FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES
Miami Police Department public affairs confirmed the gang unit detective's father is George Cadavid, who was with the department for nearly three decades. He earned notoriety in 1990 when while off duty at the Cutler Ridge mall he shot an armed robber before he tried to kill a Miami-Dade police officer.
In 1991, Cadavid also helped to catch accused cop killer Leroy "Fats" Strachan. He solved the 1946 murder of Miami police officer John Milledge. Strachan lived in New York, so Cadavid worked with former Miami police Chief John Timoney while he was with the New York Police Department.
Cadavid was head of internal affairs and had a reputation for being an honorable member of the force. Timoney, who was chief from 2003 to 2010, promoted Cadavid and hired his son. Some months after Mayor Tomas Regalado was elected, Timoney and Cadavid resigned.
In his Linkedin account, Cadavid said he works as compliance officer for The Opium Group in Miami Beach and does consultancy work for Andrews International, a security and investigations provider with an office in Doral.
CADAVID'S RECORD
While his dad was a major, the gang unit detective faced a few accusations that internal affairs deemed inconclusive.
Wilson De La Cruz said he spit in his face and threatened him in 2008. Antonio Melero accused him of insulting and threatening him in 2009, and Miguel Puerto accused him of road rage in 2010.
Andy Castaneda accused Cadavid and Miami police officer Harold Geisse of stealing about $11,598.60 in cash during a stop at gunpoint in 2010.
Records show Cadavid and Geisse claimed they stopped Castaneda, when he was driving a blue BMW. The officers said they stopped him because the vehicle was suspected of having been involved in a drug transaction in Little Havana.
Castaneda was charged with disorderly conduct. When he was released from jail he said he only got back $4,401.40 of the $16,000 he had in cash when the two officers stopped him. That internal affairs investigation was inconclusive too.
Two years after his dad left the force in 2010, Gilberto Matamoros filed a personal injury lawsuit against him and officer Jeffrey Locke. And in 2013 Cadavid received disciplinary action that he settled with the city earlier this year with the help of Fort Lauderdale attorney Robert Buschel.
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