MIAMI (AP) — The former police chief of a small Florida city will serve three years in prison for a conspiracy in his department to frame black people for crimes they did not commit.
A federal judge in Miami imposed the sentence Tuesday on ex-Biscayne Park chief Raimundo Atesiano, who had faced a maximum 10-year sentence. Three other former officers have also pleaded guilty in the case, which centered around efforts by Atesiano to improve his department’s crime-solving rate.
Atesiano’s lawyer says the victims were not randomly selected but were known to police as having criminal pasts.
Prosecutors say the crimes for which black people were falsely arrested included burglaries and vehicle break-ins.
Two ex-officers were sentenced to a year each in prison, while the third got just over two years behind bars.
