Revenge Assault on Pregnant Woman may lead to Jail for ousted Miami Beach Cop
Miami Beach, FL (PT) – A former North Miami Beach police officer could face up to fifteen years in prison following a vicious assault on a pregnant woman who gave birth prematurely within minutes of arriving at a nearby hospital. The incident took place last Wednesday evening after a seemingly unprovoked attack ended with the woman being kicked in the stomach. According to the former Police officer, Ambar Pachero, the assault had happened in the immediate aftermath of the victim’s partner, Joseph Predelus Jr., punching her sister, Mikaela, in the face. An alleged action that both he and the birth Mother of his child, the victim, Evoni Murray, have vociferously denied.
Now, Pacheco, who previous to her dismissal from the Miami Beach Police Department on Friday, had served in a probationary capacity as a uniformed patrol officer, has been charged with an aggravated battery. The offense, which carries a maximum 15 years prison sentence, or 15 years probation and a $10,000 fine, could see her spending time behind bars according to the website of prominent Florida law firm Hussein and Webber. The charges against former officer Pachero have been brought under Section 784.045 of the Florida Statutes, which specifically defines the felony which has been committed as the intentional touching or striking of another person “whom the defendant knew or should have known was pregnant.”
A news story posted on the website of the Miami New Times early on Thursday morning, just hours after the incident took place, seems to suggest that the Police officers responsible for the arrest of their former colleague had noted on her arrest report that the victim was “visibly pregnant” at the time that the offense took place. This would tend to suggest that whatever the outcome of any future prosecution, given the fact that Pacheco has already admitted to lashing out in response to another as yet unproven assault on her own sister, she is more than likely to serve a minimum sentence of twenty one months; unless her defense can produce adequate grounds for the handing down of a lesser punishment. However, given the fact that elsewhere in the arrest report Pacheco is quoted as saying that she ‘saw red’ and subsequently “beat the shit out of” Murray in an interview with the responding officers, this seems exceedingly unlikely.
However, in an exclusive interview with Amber Diaz, which was broadcast by CBS4 and subsequently posted on the miami.cbslocal.com website on Thursday evening, the victim was quoted as saying that she was “pretty sure that the officer’s intentions were not to escalate it too far.” Something which a competent legal team could well turn to its advantage in their client’s defense. Elsewhere in the same interview Evoni Murray was also quoted as saying that she hoped that the perpetrator would get “her life together” and get “the help that she needs.” A very conciliatory response from someone who appears to have come within a hair’s breadth of losing her unborn child.
After hitting the headlines locally on Thursday, the story went viral on Friday, appearing on mainstream news websites as far afield as Russia and the United Kingdom during the course of the day. All this will have provided North Miami Beach Police Department with a wave of unwanted publicity at a very critical time for the Force. According to the Miami New Times, the arrest of former officer Pacheco is just another chapter in a long running history of corruption and mismanagement that has blighted the integrity of policing in the district. The previous day North Miami Beach Commissioner Frantz Pierre was charged with taking thousands of dollars in bribes from the owner of a local strip-club in connection with a matter related to his extended-hours liquor license.
In spite of the evidence against former officer Pacheco, readers should not be fooled into thinking that she will automatically go to prison for what happened last Wednesday evening. Although she has been arrested on a felony charge of aggravated battery on a pregnant woman, the state attorney’s office has twenty one days from the time that she was charged to come to a decision as to whether or not it will pursue the matter through the courts. Taking this into consideration then, it is worth bearing in mind that in a country notorious across the globe for its leniency towards its serving Police officers, no one should be in the least bit surprised if a less than expected outcome should occur.
