The Miami-Dade Police officer who got physical with Dolphins player Tyreek Hill during a traffic stop outside Hard Rock Stadium in September has been repeatedly disciplined and suspended after other people complained he became aggressive against them for no good reason, according to internal affairs records obtained by NBC6 Investigates.
Officer Danny Torres, a 27-year veteran placed on administrative duty after body cameras captured his behavior during the pre-game encounter, was told a 10-day suspension in 2019 was justified because his “pattern of behavior indicated that you have repeatedly failed to adhere by departmental rules and procedures,” according to a disciplinary report.
Watch NBC6 free wherever you are
>
WATCH HEREDocuments released by the department shed light on that 10-day suspension imposed in 2019 for a 2018 incident and two other suspensions imposed in 2017 for incidents in 2014 and 2015.
Records released previously list what appear to be other suspensions involving other incidents, but requests for details on those cases have not yet been fulfilled.
Get local news you need to know to start your day with NBC 6's News Headlines newsletter.
>
SIGN UP
Torres is the motorcycle officer assigned to Dolphins games who forcibly removed Hill from his car hours before the season opener after another officer pulled Hill over for speeding.
Citations issued to Hill for careless driving and failure to wear a seat belt were dismissed in November after the officer who cited him failed to appear at a traffic court hearing.
Torres, whose department says it is not commenting on the matter, is seen holding Hill face down on the sidewalk. His actions led to him being taken off the road while an internal investigation is conducted.
Here is some of what the batch of previously concluded internal investigations released Monday reveals about Torres’s past conduct.
The 10-day suspension in 2019 came after a man who complained about the driving of another officer accused Torres of intentionally mutilating the driver’s license Torres demanded he turn over, then citing him for “unlawful use of a mutilated driver’s license.”
In an exclusive interview with NBC6, Hector Montalban said he was not surprised to learn Torres was the officer involved in the Tyreek Hill incident based on his experience with the officer years ago.
"Police officers are there to protect and serve. This guy is not there for that,” he said.
It was August 2018 when Montalban honked his horn at an officer he believed was driving recklessly and followed her into a Kendall parking lot to voice his complaint, according to a statement he made to investigators.
The officer said the driver blocked her from one parking space, so she chose another nearby, with Torres and other officers gathered outside a bakery noticing the commotion.
Montalban told the officer she was “a terrible officer” and started to leave the area when, he complained, Torres “screamed” at him, ordered him out of his vehicle for a “pat down” search and asked why he was “harassing” the other officer, adding “I should arrest you for this.”
At that point Torres had committed one of two violations that would be sustained: failing to report the traffic stop to MDPD communications.
Montalban apologized for calling the officer “terrible,” the report states, but Torres was not done, and demanded he produce his driver’s license, which Montalban said was not damaged when he turned it over to Torres.
“He gave me a ticket for a mutilated license,” Montalban recalled.
Then Torres committed the second sustained allegation: turning off his body-worn camera as he held the allegedly already mutilated driver’s license, showed it to the officer the driver complained about, and read from it to check the driver’s history in police databases.
Just before returning the license – along with a citation for “unlawful use of a mutilated driver’s license” – Torres turned his body camera back on.
Internal investigators did not have evidence – such as body camera video -- supporting the allegation that one of the officers intentionally damaged the driver’s license to justify the citation, so it was not sustained. If they had, investigators wrote, it could have been a crime – criminal mischief – if not something more serious. So, the matter was referred to the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office as a criminal investigation, but nearly five months later the state declined to prosecute, allowing the internal investigation to go forward.
Court records show the citation against Montalban was dismissed.
Torres denied damaging the license and told investigators he turned his camera off to save battery, saying “this is common practice… due to the number of interactions” he has with people during his shift. A panel reviewing the case concluded “Officer’s reason for non-compliance is a violation of current departmental policy.”
Torres said he failed to notify dispatch of his location because he was concerned with “officer safety” - though investigators noted he did not express those concerns to his colleagues outside the bakery and that Montalban was compliant without making any threats.
For the failure to use the body cam for the entirety of the stop and for not calling in the stop, Torres received a 10-day suspension, the severity of which the department justified by citing his prior discipline.
“I was happy that happened but that he could return to work was disappointing,” Montalban said, adding he would like for the officer to be fired and for the department to review prior complaints against him again.
Including this:
Torres was investigated for a possible criminal battery charge after he made contact with a couple who summoned police over a landlord-tenant dispute in October 2014, according to the MDPD records released Monday to NBC6 Investigates. After 10 months, the state attorney declined to press charges, the documents state, so an internal investigation got underway.
Torres wound up being suspended for five days in 2016 for violating use of force and other policies after the tenants, a married couple, complained, about his interaction with them, according to the documents. Another record released in September indicates it may have been reduced to three days, however.
Torres pulled a metal fence door off its tracks, injuring the wife of a man he “admits charging through the gate to confront” after the man cursed at him, according to the allegations. The wife told Torres he did not have permission to come onto the property they were leasing, but he did anyway, the report stated.
A neighbor who witnessed the incident corroborated the complaint, saying he saw Torres push the woman out of the way and pull the fence door in a way that caused her to fall, causing a cut on a finger and a bruise on her head.
Torres was dispatched to the home, but was leaving until he heard the husband “screaming obscenities at him” – what investigators called constitutionally protected free speech -- causing Torres to stop his car and return. He said he did so because he feared for the safety of the wife, neighbors and himself.
“We got real close to each other,” Torres recounted to internal investigators, asking the tenant, “What are you going to do?” The witness said he saw Torres go up to the man on the property and chest-bump him.
In his statement to investigators, the officer denied pushing the woman and chest-bumping her husband.
Another suspension, for five days, came after two sisters complained about Torres after he was called in December 2015 to a verbal dispute involving their father at a South Dade trash and recycling center. Torres told the father he had two minutes to leave or would be arrested and as the family was walking away one of the sisters told the other “these idiots” were not going to resolve anything, the complainant alleged.
That’s when Torres “forcefully grabbed (that sister) by her right arm and slammed her on the hood” of a police car, handcuffed her and put her in the cruiser, causing visible bruising, the complaint stated. One witness said Torres acted the moment the sister called Torres “a f------ idiot.”
Torres and another officer said the sister who was arrested refused to leave and, when Torres decided to arrest her for disorderly conduct, she resisted. The second officer said Torres grabbed the woman to place her in handcuffs, but the woman jerked her hand away, so Torres used some force to get the cuffs on her.
That officer, though, did hear Torres tell the sister who was not arrested, “I don’t wake up every f------ morning to have someone call me an a------.”
The use of force complaint was also referred to the state attorney as a criminal investigation for battery. Like the earlier case, prosecution was declined months later, allowing the administrative investigation to go forward.
The use of force allegation was not sustained, but Torres was found to have violated the policy against unbecoming conduct for using profanity with the sister who was not arrested, and received a five-day suspension in 2017, according to the records released Monday.
The misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct and resisting without violence against the sister were dismissed after she successfully completed a pretrial diversion program.
Torres’ disciplinary history shows other suspensions – one for 20 and two for five days – but those records, if available, have not yet been released.
NBC6 reached out to attorneys representing the officer. At the time of publication, we have not received a response.
NBC6 also contacted Miami-Dade Police to seek comment from the department and officer. A spokesperson declined to comment about the incident involving Tyreek Hill since the investigation is ongoing. As for the previous complaints against officer Torres, the spokesperson said the records speak for themselves.
