The officer listened to speeches vaunting his heroism, accepted a certificate naming him deputy of the month and posed for a group photo with city leaders before returning to the back of the Tamarac, Fla., commission chambers amid polite applause.
But one city official still had something he wanted to say.
“Joshua Gallardo, will you come down for a second?” asked Elberg Mike Gelin, a Tamarac city commissioner who goes by his middle name. “It’s good to see you again.”
As other elected officials stood by, frozen in disbelief, Gelin tore into the Broward County Sheriff’s Office deputy, interrupting the nonpartisan commission’s Wednesday morning meeting with what may go down as the most awkward 30 seconds in the South Florida city’s history.
“You probably don’t remember me, but you’re the police officer who falsely arrested me four years ago,” he told Gallardo, who nodded silently, still clutching his award. “You lied on the police report. I believe you’re a rogue police officer, you’re a bad police officer and you don’t deserve to be here.”
The room went silent. Gallardo gave the commissioner a thumbs up and walked away, as Tamarac Mayor Michelle J. Gomez took back the microphone and reminded everyone present that the city appreciated the work of the sheriff’s office.
The tense exchange, which in recent days has led to an outpouring of support for the commissioner but also left him facing potential censure and the loss of a crucial police union endorsement, stemmed from an incident that took place in July 2015. At the time, Gelin did not hold elected office.
As Gelin tells it, he was at a Starbucks in Tamarac, a suburban community roughly 15 miles from Fort Lauderdale, when he noticed that two homeless men were fighting outside and tried to intervene. Three officers showed up, he told local blog Tamarac Talk, and Gallardo was among them.........https://fromthetrenchesworldreport.com/you-lied-florida-official-interrupts-awards-ceremony-to-confront-deputy-who-falsely-arrested-him/254835
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