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6 Miami Officers Indicted in '88 Death of Drug Dealer: Law enforcement: The new
charges claim a police cover-up in the fatal beating. Earlier acquittals had sparked
violence in Puerto Rican community.
J uly 24, 1993 I MIKE ClARY I SPECIAL TOTHETI MES
MIAMI Yet another explosive criminal case involving a killing by police was rekindled this week wit h new federal indictments charging six Miami officers
with planting evidence and conspiring to cover up the beating death of a well -known drug dealer almost five years ago.
Four of the six officers named in the grand jury indictment have been tried once in the deat h of leonardo Mercado. Their acquittal on civil rights charges in
December, 1990, led to fiery protests on t he streets of Miami's largely Puerto Rican Wynwood neighborhood. About 200 riot pol ice were cal led out to quell a
disturbance in which several businesses were burned.
This time, those four officers, along with two others not previously charged, are accused of fabricating evidence, incl uding planting a knife in the kit chen
where Mercado died, and then agreeing to lie about it.
"A lot of people are very happy about t his," Bill Rios, executive director of the Wynwood Community Development Corp., said Friday, a day after the
indictments were announced. "This validates the community's belief that there was a conspiracy.n
The trial of the six officers, expected to begin this fall, will once again focus att ent ion on police actions t hat have led to violent deaths and equally violent
community reaction. Since 1980, Miami has been rocked by four major riots sparked either by killings by police or jury verdicts involving such killings.
Mercado, 35, died Dec. 16, 1988, minutes after six officers from Miami's Street Narcotics Unit stopped to question him about a death threat one of the
officers had reportedly received. Punched and kicked so hard that footprints were visible on his face, Mercado was a victim of what a police spokesman later
called "just a frenzy." His death was ruled a homicide.
Six officers went to trial on federal civil rights and conspiracy charges. and after six .... -eeks of testimony all were freed after t he jury either acquitted t hem or
could not decide on a verdict.
One of the six: officers initially charged died two years ago in a sky-diving accident. Anot her, Thomas Trujillo, has been granted immunity and is expect ed to
t estify.
''This indict ment should assure people that the system can check itself, " said Assistant U.S. Atty. Bruce Udolf.
In pursuing charges of evidence planting and conspiracy, prosecutors hope t o use statements the defendants made to police internal affairs investigators.
Those stat ements were suppressed in the first t rial.
Charged for the second time in the Mercado case are Pablo Camacho, 46; Charles Haynes, 34; Nathaniel Veal Jr., 34, and Andy Watson, 36. All were allegedly
involved in the beat ing.
Facing charges for t he first time are officer Annando Aguilar, 37, and J esus Aguero, 30, who was fired from the force in December for receiving unlawful
compensat ion and cormnitting perj ury.
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