Judge Sides With Families Of Memorial Day Shooting Case To Release Evidence
MIAMI (CBS4) - A Miami-Dade County judge issued a stern ruling to Miami Beach city attorneys Wednesday ordering them to turn over evidence of in the 2011 Memorial Day shooting that killed a man and injured four bystanders.
The court appearance was the second for the families of the victims. They claim the city of Miami Beach is stonewalling and believe some of the basic evidence, such as police radio transmissions, has been destroyed.
"I am concerned that they are deliberately not giving us anything," said Marwan Porter, attorney for the plaintiffs. "I am concerned there is something to hide and they don't want us to discover what that is."
Judge Victoria Sigler, who presided over Wednesday's hearing, ordered the evidence be turned over months ago. During the hearing, attorneys for the city suggested her previous order to surrender evidence wasn't clear or complete.
Judge Sigler reiterated her ruling to turn over all evidence to the plaintiff's attorneys.
"Her ruling and her order was clear and unambiguous last time. It seems like the city is playing a game of semantics," said Porter.
During proceedings, it was also revealed that Miami Beach Police only in recent days completed their probe of the shooting and handed the case over to the office of State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle where it now sits.
The city's attorney had no comment when questioned outside court by CBS4's Gary Nelson.
Raymond Herisse was killed in the early morning melee. Police claim Herisse was driving erratically the wrong way down Collins Avenue. At one point he almost hit a Hialeah police officer on a bicycle who was helping with crowd control. Police said they thought the driver may have been armed.
As Herisse rolled to a stop near near 14th St. and Collins Avenue, police opened fire on the car. The barrage of bullets was captured on camera and posted on YouTube. Records show police fired 116 rounds, Herisse died on the scene.
Police found the gun hidden in Herisse's blue, bullet-ridden Hyundai three days later.
A Miami-Dade Police's forensics lab report found that Herisse did not test positive for gunpowder residue which means he did not fire the weapon.
