EDITOR'S NOTE: Armenteros pleaded no contest to a lesser charge of filing a false report, a misdemeanor.
A Florida City Police Department corporal was arrested Friday on charges of official misconduct for allegedly lying during the arrest of a suspected drug dealer.
Ken David Armenteros, 37, turned himself in to Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents to face two counts of official misconduct.
According to Miami-Dade prosecutors and Florida City police officials, Armenteros was off-duty on the afternoon of Sept. 13, 2016, when he requested emergency backup after a confrontation outside a known "drug house" in Florida City.
Officers arrived and arrested the suspect, Christopher Maurice Lewis, on a variety of felonies, officials said.
An investigation by FDLE revealed that Armenteros "materially and fraudulently misrepresented the facts" leading up to and surrounding the request for back-up and arrest of Lewis, officials said.
The charges against Lewis were dropped "when the evidence of deception by Armenteros came to light," officials said.
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"A police officer’s credibility is one of his most valuable law enforcement tools," Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said in a statement. "The filing of any false document undermines that officer’s ability to testify in court. As State Attorney, I know that one can never truly discover the truth once it has been layered with distortions or lies."
Armenteros was booked into jail. Attorney information wasn't available.
