Hollywood Police Officer Accused of Lying in Another DUI Case
A disgraced Hollywood police officer, currently under investigation for discussing on video how to falsify a woman's arrest report last February, is now being accused of lying about the existence of a DUI videotape in a separate case.
Officer Dewey Pressley is being accused of lying during court proceedings relating to the DUI arrest of Steven Berglund in August of 2008. According to Berglund's attorney, Pressley lied when he testified that a DUI videotape did not exist... allegedly due to problems with his in-car video recording system. A videotape, however, did indeed exist and appeared to show several inconsistencies with Pressley's testimony in the case.
On July 9th of this year, Berglund pled no content to reduced charges after the State Attorney's Office in Broward learned of Pressley's dubious testimony. Nevertheless, Berglund still received 30 days in jail, 3 years of probation, and a brutal 10 year license suspension. Now, however, after learing that a video exists of Officer Pressley allegedly falsifying the arrest report in a February crash involving Hollywood police officer Joel Francisco and 23-year-old Alexandra Torrens-Vilas, Berglund and his attorney are looking to re-open his case and fight his DUI charge.
Pressley and Francisco are not the only Broward law enforcement officers implicated in the DUI videotape scandal; Sergeant Andrew Diaz, Community Service Officer Karim Thomas, and Crime Scene Technician Andrew Tomassi are also under investigation for their roles in the falsification of Torrens-Vilas's DUI report.
So what will become of this scandal? Well, one thing is for certain... criminal defense attorneys throughout South Florida will be reviewing all of their cases involving these officers... both current and past cases... to see how they might be affected. Several cases involving these officers have already been dropped.
We here at Pensky & Kim, P.A., the publishers of the Miami Criminal Lawyer Blog, are very interested to see how this DUI videotape scandal plays out. The role of these officers in the falsification of Torrens-Vilas's DUI report will have a devastating and permanent effect on their credibility in future cases... and so many criminal cases may end up getting dismissed. But whether or not these allegations are enough to overturn existing convictions in closed cases in another matter completely.
If you have been arrested for DUI or any other criminal offense, the experienced criminal attorneys at Pensky & Kim, P.A., can help. We are available 24/7 to handle state and federal criminal cases in Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, and throughout Florida. Please call (305) 571-9800 for a free consultation or check out our Miami DUI lawyer and Miami-Dade criminal attorney website for information.
