Man who says he was Tasered and dragged down steps sues Opa-locka

Nineteen months ago, family members of a mentally ill teen accused several Opa-locka police officers of using an electronic stun gun on him while he was tied up, then dragging him down a flight of stairs as family and neighbors looked on in horror.

On Wednesday, Jafet Castro, now 21, filed a lawsuit in federal court accusing Opa-locka police of excessive force, false imprisonment and entering his home illegally. The nine-count complaint, which was filed against the city and the officers, also accuses the city of negligence in training officers to deal with the mentally ill.

“He was mentally ill and needed help. He did not need to be dragged out in custody, his head smashed on the stairs and stunned with a Taser,” said Castro’s attorney, Michael Pizzi. “They had no reason to even arrest him.”

The lawsuit also names two cops with checkered records as being involved in Castro’s detention. One, Officer Sergio Perez, was booted from the department twice, first after a car chase that led to four deaths and then again after striking another cop with a Taser. Another, Sgt. German Bosque, had been fired seven times during a threedecade career and beaten three raps in court.

The lawsuit was filed electronically in U.S. District Court Southern District of Florida in Miami on Wednesday against the city of Opa-locka and the officers involved in the Sept.

21, 2020, incident at Castro’s home in the 2500 block of York Avenue. It seeks money damages and argues the city should be held accountable for training deficiencies and that the officers involved in Castro’s arrest beat him and Tasered him as he begged them to let him go, even while praying out loud.

Opa-locka City Manager Darvin Williams and Steadman Stahl, president of the South Florida Police Benevolent Association, said they had not seen the lawsuit and could not comment yet.

The story made headlines almost two years ago after Castro’s family released cellphone video showing police dragging the then-19year-old on his back as he bounced down the home’s front steps with hands and feet tied. As friends and relatives shrieked, an officer is heard saying, “It’s just electricity. It looks bad ... it hurts for a second, but he keeps resisting, you understand?”

Though family members say Castro had already been tied up by the time police got there, cops still charged him with resisting arrest without violence. The charge was dropped.

Police were initially called to the home by family members worried that Castro was acting erratically. When police arrived to what they believed was a domestic-violence call, the lawsuit claims, Castro’s father and uncle were standing outside the firstfloor apartment. Pizzi said the teen’s father asked the police to leave. They didn’t.

Instead, they entered the apartment and found Castro lying on the ground, tied up with rope and subdued.

The lawsuit claims when Castro saw the police he, too, asked them to leave. But instead, Bosque and another officer tried to turn him over and put handcuffs on him. Castro fought them, before Officer Perez punched him in the face and Officer Louis Serrano fired his Taser, striking Castro, according to the lawsuit.

“Officer Serrano used the Taser for about 30 seconds straight without stopping causing Castro unbearable pain and harm without any lawful justification,” the lawsuit claims.

A 48-second cellphone video captures two officers then dragging Castro down five steps from the firstfloor apartment with bound hands and feet. At one point, a woman cries, “No, don’t do that.”

The city never identified the officers who dragged Castro outside. But lawenforcement sources said they were Nikeya Jenkins and Perez, who both had been promoted to lieutenant two months before the Castro incident.

Internal Affairs cleared Perez of any wrongdoing within a matter of weeks.

In addition to naming Perez in the lawsuit, Pizzi also claims Bosque was one of the main protagonists. Police sources took issue with that, saying Bosque didn’t have much interaction with Castro and was mainly trying to keep the situation calm.

Both Bosque and Perez had previously made headlines. Well over a decade ago, a nine-part series in the Sarasota Herald Tribune on policing in Florida named Bosque “Florida’s Worst Cop.” During his threedecade career, Bosque has been fired seven times, beating three criminal charges.

He was fired most recently about a year ago when when his bosses thought he was coaching a fellow officer on lying to Miami-Dade police about a weapon. He was returned and promoted to sergeant.

Perez was initially fired from Opa-locka police following a 2013 incident in which a car he was chasing the wrong way onto I-95 had a head-on collision and four tourists were killed. He would get his job back.

Then in February, Perez was demoted to a desk job in code enforcement after Tasering a fellow officer, who would later be named interim police chief. In January, he was arrested and charged with misdemeanor battery. He is on paid family medical leave.

Stahl, the South Florida Police Benevolent Association president, has supported Bosque in the past, saying though the accusations against him often sound horrendous, it’s usually just a case of the administration exaggerating what happened.

Pizzi said Castro is working as a roofer and still recovering from the emotional encounter.

“He’s trying to get his life back together,” the attorney said.