A judge on Thursday rejected a bid by two men charged in the attempted murder of a drug detective in March to have the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office removed from their case.
Attorneys for Steve Gallon IV and Atiba Moore argued the prosecution was tainted because the officer Gallon allegedly shot had previously sued a now-retired prosecutor and the county for defamation.
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WATCH HEREDet. Darrian Wasington was part of a unit suspected of stealing cash from drug dealers, but he was never charged or arrested. One of his colleagues, though, pled to contest to grand theft stemming from a 2016 sting operation and is serving two years of probation.
But while Washington was never formally accused, a former top prosecutor told officers in 2016 he had "a serious credibility issue" and that he "believed" Washington stole money.
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A federal judge threw out the lawsuit, ruling the prosecutor was protected in stating his opinions to other government employees.
Still, defense attorney Bradford Cohen argued, having allegedly defamed Washington in the past, the state attorney's office can't objectively decide to prosecute based on what Washington says happened that afternoon in March.
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“If we don't file on this case they’re going to look at it like, 'We're not filing on it because we don’t believe this guy,'" Cohen said. "That is where the prejudice is. They are in a box to have to file this case."
But Judge Alberto Milian denied the request to have another circuit’s prosecutors assigned the cases.
"Where's the actual prejudice or where’s the substantial misconduct by the state attorney’s office?" he asked, before ruling there was neither.
But the defense will continue to attack Washington's version of events, revealing Thursday that there were 16 shots fired in the incident - some of them by Washington - who they say wore nothing suggesting he was an officer.
"But we have since realized he at least pulled his weapon and fired shots,” Cohen said. "We don't know how many but he is allegedly fired upon by another individual."
The state says that was Gallon, but both men are charged with attempted murder because they allegedly acted in concert.
Defense attorneys said that's a stretch.
"You’re chasing a guy with no lights on, no insignia, in a high-crime neighborhood with tinted windows and you smash into the back of him, he gets out and runs and shots are fired and you’re charging him with attempted first-degree murder?" Cohen recounted, sounding somewhat incredulous.
While it lost this motion to disqualify, the defense will challenge the evidence, in part based on what they say is the police’s false claim that the shooting stemmed from a traffic stop.
In fact, it was part of an ongoing drug investigation.
Found in Moore's car was a sheet of paper infused with narcotics, a method used to smuggle drugs into jails through the mail.
And among the law enforcement agencies involved in this case: the US Postal Inspector.
