MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. — A Broward County judge found three former Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office deputies involved in a 2019 fatal shootout in Miramar were immune from prosecution under Florida’s “stand your ground” law.
Broward County Circuit Judge Ernest Kollra dismissed the manslaughter cases against Richard Santiesteban, Leslie Lee, and Rodolfo Mirabal.
In his orders, Kollra wrote he found “the facts and testimony support the application of immunity under Florida’s ‘Stand Your Ground’ law” for their actions on Dec. 5, 2019, in Miramar.
The Broward State Attorney’s Office released a statement on Monday, saying that the plan was to appeal the three rulings.
“It is our belief that Stand Your Ground immunity does not apply in matters involving innocent bystanders, like Frank Ordonez and Richard Cutshaw, who presented no danger to officers,” prosecutors wrote. “In this incident, two innocent men were killed, and the lives of numerous other innocent bystanders were endangered.”
Jose Mateo, a former M-DSO deputy who was also involved in the shootout, was also cleared of the charges late last year.
Ordonez, 27, was working as a UPS driver when Lamar Alexander and Ronnie Jerome Hill, two fleeing felons involved in the armed burglary of Regens Jewelry in Coral Gables, took him hostage.
Alexander and Hill hijacked the UPS truck Ordonez had been assigned to drive and fled from police from Miami-Dade County to Broward County.
Rush-hour traffic along Miramar Parkway forced a standoff and a shooting.
Cutshaw, an innocent bystander, was driving home from work when he stopped at a red light and was killed in the hail of gunfire. Alexander and Hill also died.
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