Two Miami-Dade sheriff's deputies have filed a defamation lawsuit against Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, alleging 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 plaintiffs, deputies Jonathan Santana and Jason Smith, were part of the real-life narcotics team that conducted a 2016 drug bust in Miami Lakes, where $24m in cash was discovered hidden in 24 buckets behind drywall. The film dramatises this event, depicting a story of temptation and trust among officers handling the unsupervised money.
Santana told 7 News Miami: 'When you rip something, you're stealing something. We never stole a dollar.' Their attorney, Ignacio Alvarez, stated the officers suffered 'substantial harm to their personal and professional reputations' from the film's portrayal. He added that the deputies should have been paid as consultants, as another officer involved in the raid was.
The film has previously drawn criticism from Hialeah Mayor Bryan Calvo, who said it was 'a slap in the face of our law enforcement personnel'. The movie relocated the raid to Hialeah, rather than its actual location in Miami Lakes.
Neither deputy is named in the film, but libel lawyers note that defamation claims can succeed if fictional characters are closely aligned with real individuals. Artists Equity has denied the allegations, stating the film used fictional names, settings and storylines, and included a disclaimer that it is not intended to portray real people.
