Two Miami-Dade sheriff's deputies have filed a defamation lawsuit against Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, claiming their portrayal in the Netflix film The Rip makes them appear as 'dirty cops'. The lawsuit, filed on 6 May in a Florida federal court, targets the actors' production company Artists Equity.
The film dramatises a 2016 drug bust in Miami Lakes where $24 million was discovered hidden in buckets behind drywall. Deputies Jonathan Santana and Jason Smith, part of the real-life raid team, argue the fictionalised account suggests they stole money. 'When you rip something, you're stealing something. We never stole a dollar,' Santana told 7 News Miami.
The lawsuit claims the officers suffered 'substantial harm to their personal and professional reputations'. Their attorney, Ignacio Alvarez, stated: 'They portrayed police officers as dirty, they portrayed my clients as dirty.' The deputies also allege they should have been paid as consultants, as another officer involved in the raid was.
Neither deputy is named in the film, which uses fictional names and a disclaimer stating it is not intended to portray real people. However, libel experts note that defamation actions can succeed if fictional characters are closely aligned with real individuals. Artists Equity has denied the allegations, according to a March demand response letter included with the complaint.
This is not the first controversy surrounding The Rip. Hialeah Mayor Bryan Calvo previously criticised the film for relocating the raid to his city, calling it 'a slap in the face of our law enforcement personnel'. Netflix, which is not named in the lawsuit, settled a defamation case in 2022 over The Queen's Gambit.
