{"id":346856,"date":"2026-03-24T09:10:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T14:10:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/judge-cites-stand-your-ground-law-in-clearing-3-more-florida-officers-in-shooting-of-a-ups-driver"},"modified":"2026-03-24T09:10:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T14:10:24","slug":"judge-cites-stand-your-ground-law-in-clearing-3-more-florida-officers-in-shooting-of-a-ups-driver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/judge-cites-stand-your-ground-law-in-clearing-3-more-florida-officers-in-shooting-of-a-ups-driver","title":{"rendered":"Decide cites &#8216;stand your floor&#8217; legislation in clearing 3 extra Florida officers in taking pictures of a UPS driver"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"prism-article-body\">\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \"><span class=\"oyrPY qlwaB AGxeB \">FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. &#8212; <\/span>A South Florida judge on Monday cleared three more police officers of wrongdoing in the shooting death of a <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/f14104d682c609e496e8372a20b457ca\">UPS driver who had been taken hostage<\/a> during a 2019 robbery.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Broward Circuit Judge Ernest Kollra ruled that Miami-Dade police officers Richard Santiesteban, Leslie Lee and Rodolfo Mirabal \u2014 who had been charged with manslaughter in the death of UPS driver Frank Ordonez \u2014 could not be prosecuted because Florida&#8217;s \u201cstand your ground\u201d law justified the shooting. The same judge cleared officer <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/ups-shooting-officer-stand-your-ground-florida-916f7418a1bd6f3f3abd72a5e13df6cd\">Jose Mateo<\/a> in September for the same reason.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The Broward State Attorney&#8217;s Office said it will appeal all four rulings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">\u201cImmunity from prosecution is not the same as a defense presented to a jury from this community,&#8221; the state attorney\u2019s statement said. \u201cIt is our belief that Stand Your Ground immunity does not apply in matters involving innocent bystanders, like Frank Ordonez and Richard Cutshaw, who presented no danger to officers. In this incident, two innocent men were killed, and the lives of numerous other innocent bystanders were endangered.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Cutshaw was also killed in the barrage of gunfire that afternoon.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Ordonez, 27, had been delivering packages in Miami-Dade County on Dec. 5, 2019, when police said two would-be jewelry store robbers abducted him and forced him to drive from the scene. A rush-hour police chase ended at a busy intersection in neighboring Broward County. <\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Prosecutors said Mateo fired the shots that killed Ordonez. The two robbers and a passerby were also killed in a hail of gunfire at an intersection in Miramar, Florida.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Footage from a body camera that was played in court showed Mateo&#8217;s pursuit of the UPS truck that afternoon. His partner could be seen in the passenger seat with a long gun drawn. The video also showed Mateo approaching the UPS truck. He emptied his firearm&#8217;s magazine, reloaded and then pulled Ordonez from the vehicle.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The judge ruled the officers had reason to believe deadly force was necessary to end the confrontation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The four officers are currently suspended from the their jobs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/abcnews.com\/US\/wireStory\/judge-cites-stand-ground-law-clearing-3-florida-131342534\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. &#8212; A South Florida judge on Monday cleared three more police officers of wrongdoing in the shooting death of a UPS driver [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":346859,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[24209,536,3,24204,24207,1578,24208,1606,24206,24205,3420],"class_list":["post-346856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-broward-county","tag-driver","tag-florida","tag-frank-ordonez","tag-leslie-lee","tag-miami","tag-miramar","tag-officer","tag-richard-cutshaw","tag-rodolfo-mirabal","tag-south-florida"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346856"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346856\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":346858,"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346856\/revisions\/346858"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/346859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}