A South Florida judge has cleared three Miami-Dade police officers of wrongdoing in the 2019 shooting death of a UPS driver taken hostage during a robbery. Broward Circuit Judge Ernest Kollra ruled that officers Richard Santiesteban, Leslie Lee, and Rodolfo Mirabal could not be prosecuted because Florida’s “stand your ground” law justified the shooting. The same judge previously cleared officer Jose Mateo in September for the same reason.
The Broward State Attorney’s Office announced it will appeal all four rulings. In a statement, the office argued that immunity from prosecution is not the same as a defense presented to a jury and that the law does not apply to innocent bystanders like Frank Ordonez and Richard Cutshaw, who posed no danger to officers. The incident resulted in the deaths of two innocent men and endangered numerous bystanders.
Ordonez, 27, was delivering packages in Miami-Dade County on December 5, 2019, when two would-be jewelry store robbers abducted him and forced him to drive from the scene. A police chase ended at a busy intersection in neighboring Broward County. Prosecutors said Mateo fired the shots that killed Ordonez. The two robbers and a passerby were also killed in the gunfire at an intersection in Miramar, Florida.
Body camera footage played in court showed Mateo’s pursuit of the UPS truck. His partner was seen with a long gun drawn, and the video showed Mateo approaching the truck, emptying his firearm’s magazine, reloading, and then pulling Ordonez from the vehicle.