US cop found guilty in ‘citizen’s arrest’ of men he followed to retrieve wife’s phone

An Aventura police officer was found guilty on Dec 12 of holding two men at gunpoint in Pompano Beach because he thought they had stolen his wife’s cellphone.

David Delgado was in uniform and travelling in his marked patrol car on May 20 this year when he confronted the two men, described during the trial as musicians who were performing at a festival in Bayfront Park. The men had gone shopping at the Aventura Mall and used a valet to park. The valet, the officer’s wife, accidentally left her phone in the men’s car.

Investigators and prosecutors said Delgado took it upon himself to track the men down even after they made arrangements with the valet to return her phone the following day. Leaving his jurisdiction in his patrol car and in uniform, Delgado found the men in the parking lot of a Pompano Beach apartment building.

There, according to the victims and police, he pulled his gun out and ordered the men to return the phone, handcuffing one of them and threatening to shoot if they did not comply.

Delgado’s defense lawyer, Johnny McCray, argued that Delgado was exercising his authority as a citizen to detain or arrest someone he believed to be committing a crime. But when Delgado took the stand, prosecutor Justin McCormack got him to admit his goal was to recover the phone.

The Broward Sheriff’s Office, which has jurisdiction in Pompano Beach, was not called to the scene.

Delgado, according to the victims, declined to give his name as he left the scene with his wife’s phone. McCormack also introduced evidence that Delgado falsified an Aventura police report to show the phone, which had been reported stolen, was recovered without incident. The report was introduced at trial, but the Broward State Attorney’s Office did not charge Delgado with filing a false report because that alleged crime took place in Miami-Dade County.

Delgado faces 21 years in prison for two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, two counts of false imprisonment and one count of battery. His sentencing date has not been set.

McCray indicated in court that an appeal is likely. – South Florida Sun-Sentinel/Tribune News Service