FHP officers say cops overreacted
By Luisa Yanez. lyanez@herald.com. Published Wednesday,
November 29, 2000, in the Miami Herald
The depositions of three Florida Highway Patrol troopers taken this month
appear to back the claim of a celebrated local attorney that her arrest in the
aftermath of the Elián González raid was unwarranted.
Facing a charge of disobeying a police order, Grisel Ybarra, 46, of Coral
Gables is scheduled for trial today.
The three Jacksonville-based troopers, among six assigned to crowd control
in Little Havana, said they would not have arrested Ybarra, nor tear-gassed the
crowd of mostly elderly exiles. They were gathered around Ybarra on April 25 as
she collected money from passing motorists at 2920 NW Seventh St., outside
Telemiami, a cable TV station.
"I wouldn't have arrested her,'' said Trooper Michael Dobbs, who had
watched Ybarra for more than two hours as she staged her street fundraiser,
passing around a collection box to motorists. The money was to bail out
demonstrators arrested the day of the raid. "I didn't see she was doing
anything wrong.''
The troopers were also critical of the actions taken by the Miami Police
officers, who wrestled Ybarra to the ground and arrested her as television
cameras captured the scene. The Miami officers tear-gassed the crowd, which the
troopers described in their statements as peaceful.
"Those people treated us with nothing but respect,'' Trooper Kenneth J.
Frost said. "Not once when we asked somebody to ease back up on the road
did they not do it.''
Miami officers, in their own depositions, have criticized the troopers'
crowd control actions. Miami Police say Ybarra disobeyed their instructions to
stay out of the street.
"If they say we didn't do a good job, we don't think they did such a
great job either,'' said Detective Delrish Moss, a Miami Police spokesman.
An internal investigation of the actions taken by Miami Police in those days
found the department acted properly. However, the fallout from the raid led to
the resignation of Miami Police Chief William O'Brien.
In the aftermath, critics said Miami Police manhandled demonstrators and
freely used tear gas. Some 435 people were arrested in the days following the
April 22 raid. Most have settled their cases, by pleading guilty, having charges
dropped or bargaining down.
Ybarra is the only demonstrator still facing trial solely on protest
charges.
Now, bolstered by the troopers' testimony, Ybarra said the Broward County
prosecutor spearheading her prosecution on two counts of disobeying a police
order should drop her case, too.
"I didn't disobey a police order,'' Ybarra said. "That day, I did
what I was told. There was no reason to arrest me.''
If convicted, she could face disciplinary action by the Florida Bar, said
the immigration attorney, who often appears as an immigration expert on
Spanish-language radio and television.
"This case will go on,'' said prosecutor John Countryman, assigned to
the case by Gov. Jeb Bush after Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernández
Rundle recused her office. "She disobeyed an order from a police officer.
It doesn't matter what defense witnesses like the troopers say.''
The troopers, who were deposed as defense witnesses, said they had things
under control, until Miami Police arrived.
"And then all of a sudden we looked down the road and there was the bus
and a bunch of SWAT people coming in,'' Dobbs said.
"We went up to them and said: 'What y'all here for?' You know we didn't
call them. Nobody called them, because we were in charge of this little block.
They said: 'We're fixing to disburse all these people; we're fixing to clear
them out.'
"And we said, 'I don't think so.' ''
Eventually, Miami took over the scene arresting Ybarra.
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