Arkansas Online

Ex-police chief cites retaliation in suit

MIAMI — The embattled former police chief of Miami is suing his former employer and city commissioners, saying his public firing three months ago was in retaliation for him speaking out against corruption.

Art Acevedo had a six-month tenure and was suspended and then fired after three raucous meetings, in which he says he was “purposefully humiliated” and fired for reporting abuses of power by elected officials.

The complaint, filed Wednesday in federal court, was against the city of Miami, its city manager Art Noriega and three city commissioners.

The lawsuit says a memo sent to the mayor and city manager accusing several commissioners of hampering his reform and meddling in the police department should have been protected by the First Amendment, but instead cost him his job. It says his firing was in violation of Florida Whistle-blower’s Act, which protects employees against retaliatory actions for reporting abuses of power.

The city of Miami did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez recruited Acevedo, who was touted as a progressive law enforcer who had headed the police department in Houston and shared ancestry with hundreds of thousands of Cubans in Miami as a Havana-born refugee.

But Acevedo began making waves almost immediately after he started in the post last April by taking over internal affairs and making significant changes to his command staff.

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2022-01-20T08:00:00.0000000Z

2022-01-20T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://edition.arkansasonline.com/article/281668258349552

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