A South Florida judge has cleared three additional police officers of any criminal wrongdoing in the fatal shooting of a UPS driver who was taken hostage during a dramatic 2019 robbery incident. Broward Circuit Judge Ernest Kollra issued the ruling on Monday, determining that the officers' actions were justified under Florida's controversial "stand your ground" legislation.
Legal Justification and Officer Immunity
Judge Kollra ruled that Miami-Dade police officers Richard Santiesteban, Leslie Lee, and Rodolfo Mirabal could not be prosecuted for manslaughter in the death of UPS driver Frank Ordonez because the state's "stand your ground" law provided legal justification for their use of deadly force. This follows a similar September ruling where the same judge cleared officer Jose Mateo for identical reasons related to the same incident.
The Broward State Attorney's Office has announced it will appeal all four rulings, arguing in a statement that "immunity from prosecution is not the same as a defense presented to a jury from this community." Prosecutors contend 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."
Tragic Details of the 2019 Incident
The fatal shooting occurred on December 5, 2019, when 27-year-old Frank Ordonez was delivering packages in Miami-Dade County. Police reported that two attempted jewelry store robbers abducted Ordonez and forced him to drive away from the crime scene. What followed was a high-speed rush-hour police chase that culminated at a busy intersection in neighboring Broward County.
Prosecutors stated that officer Jose Mateo fired the shots that killed Ordonez during the confrontation. The two robbers and a passerby, Richard Cutshaw, were also killed in what witnesses described as a "hail of gunfire" at the Miramar, Florida intersection. Body camera footage played in court showed Mateo pursuing the UPS truck that afternoon, with his partner visible in the passenger seat holding a drawn long gun.
Court Evidence and Judicial Reasoning
The video evidence presented in court depicted Mateo approaching the UPS truck, emptying his firearm's magazine, reloading his weapon, and then pulling Ordonez from the vehicle. Judge Kollra determined that the officers had reasonable grounds to believe that deadly force was necessary to end the dangerous confrontation and protect public safety.
"In this incident, two innocent men were killed, and the lives of numerous other innocent bystanders were endangered," the state attorney's office emphasized in their statement regarding the planned appeal. All four officers involved in the shooting remain suspended from their duties pending the outcome of the legal proceedings.
