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MEET MR. OSCAR JULIEN-RIOU:
V.A.'s Article on Mr. Oscar Julien-Riou.

In addition to being a retired Army Veteran and R.N., he's a self-taught pianist who still volunteers at the V.A. playing the piano for Veterans in palliative care.




SUSTAINED...SUSTAINED...SUSTAINED...

Ms. Williams filed a complaint against the Officer and got results! SUSTAINED...SUSTAINED...SUSTAINED.



WHAT HAPPENED?
#JusticeForRiou #BlackLivesMatter



AND DON'T FORGET TO USE THE ONE-CLICK BUTTONS AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE TO MAKE CALLS, SIGN THE CHANGE.ORG PETITON, AND SHARE #JUSTICEFORRIOU NOW!



African-American Veteran and honorably discharged Retired Army Officer Mr. Oscar Julien-Riou ("ree-oh") was falsely arrested and brutalized by City of Miami police officer Ioannys Llanes ("Lon-nes Yah-nez") and other Officers he called to the scene. Mr. Riou is also a Minister and Registered Nurse who had never been arrested in his 63 years of life. Further, he's a self-taught pianist who still volunteers at the VA playing the piano for Veterans in palliative care. Mr. Riou enlisted in the Army as an E-3 medic, earned his L.P.N., then R.N., then commission as an Officer and retired as an O-3. He served our Country for 20 years only to be falsely arrested and brutalized by those sworn to protect and serve.



Officer Llanes approached Mr. Riou and told him to leave Alonzo Kelly Park in Miami, stating it was "closed." There were no signs with park hours posted in the park. It is a public park across the street from where Mr. Riou lived, and Mr. Riou was sitting alone on a park bench when Llanes approached him. It was around 7 PM. Because Mr. Riou was video-journaling/vlogging about his post-retirement plans to go into full-time ministry and music -- as he did daily at Alonzo Kelly Park and parks across the county, his camera was recording when Llanes approached him. As the video shows, Officer Llanes car was at the park with the light shining in Mr. Riou's direction for approximately 6 minutes prior to approaching Mr. Riou, and he saw Mr. Riou sitting alone on the park bench not bothering anyone when approaching him, so he knew Mr. Riou was not a threat. The entire park is one small square with a few concrete benches turned inward, you can see the entire park from any point in the park. Ironically, Mr. Riou didn't have any fear when he saw the Officer's car, even happily commenting to himself on the video that the Miami "police were on the job" when he saw the Officer's car approach. He had no idea what Llanes and the other Officers from Miami PD were about to do to him.




Even though Mr. Riou #COMPLIED with the order (as veterans are accustomed to doing), that wasn't enough for Officer Llanes! Officer Llanes still escalated the encounter into a full-blown arrest, alleging that Mr. Riou "threw something on the ground." He threw 63 year-old Mr. Riou on the concrete ground while Mr. Riou was yelling out in pain that Llanes was hurting him, asking Llanes why he was treating him that way, pleading with Llanes to stop hurting him, offering to show his camera, ID, anything to to get LLanes to stop. But Officer Llanes didn't stop!! He called other officers to the scene, multiple officers responded and "descended on" Mr. Riou "like S.W.A.T." They released the K-9, searched Mr. Riou without consent, handcuffed him, put him in the back of the police car, un-handcuffed him, re-handcuffed him, detained this retired veteran with no criminal record for almost TWO HOURS!! They found #Nothing. The dog found #Nothing.



But even that wasn't enough for Miami PD! Then, to add insult to (physical) injury and cover up, Officer Llanes STILL charged Mr. Riou..... with "resisting arrest." Llanes also prefaced his report with "I was in a high-crime area" to bolster his false arrest of this black veteran. (Even the Courts have held that alone doesn't rise to probable cause to prevent police violation of 4th Amendment rights.) Mr. Riou said "I was scared for my life" as the police "descended on me like S.W.A.T. I was thinking they could kill me and my children never would have known what happened to me." We filed a complaint with IA.



In February 2019, I succeeded in getting the criminal charge dropped a few days before Trial when the Prosecutor was finally available to view the Video with me, and agreed Police lacked probable cause for the arrest. Be clear, this wasn't a situation where the police immediately admitted their wrongdoing and/or sought to resolve this issue on their own or apologize to Mr. Riou. This was 2 1/2 months later after Mr. Riou had to retain an Attorney to defend him and demand a Jury Trial. Neither was this a situation where they gave multiple warnings prior to arrest, the person tried to escape or fight the officer. This was a black 63-year old retired Veteran who had done nothing. He was just sitting on a public park bench across the street from home when Llanes and the Miami PD adversely changed his life forever. In fact, Mr. Riou was so traumatized by what they did that he wouldn't even attend Court with me on 02/25/19 to hear the Prosecutor officially drop the charge.



In fact, when Mr. Riou came to me about what happened after the arrest occurred December 10, 2018, he didn't even know he had a criminal case against him. After all, he'd never been arrested. I had to show and explain the criminal proceedings to him in the system after reading the police report, and of course we first had to work to clear his name. We were prepared to fight this all the way before the Prosecutor dropped the charge. Reasonably, Mr. Riou was afraid to release this video and information prior to resolution of the criminal charge in fear that the police would fabricate further evidence during the pendency of the proceeding. He said "I was scared for my life" as police "descended on me like S.W.A.T.! I was thinking they could kill me and my children would never have known what happened to me."



Finally in 2020, over a year after we filed our complaint and the Prosecutor had already dropped Officer Llanes' charge against Mr. Riou, Internal Affairs (IA) sent a letter that it had completed its police-led investigation, not sustaining and exonerating Officer Llanes of the serious allegations against him. So we took the allegations to the non-police internal investigators at the CIP, and their report was totally different! They utilized body cam footage, reports, police reports, IA's own investigation and more. Come back to see their results! It is Time for Officer Llanes to go! Miami PD didn't even put him on leave.


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Today, Mr. Riou still suffers the effects of this false arrest and brutalization. He was brutalized after protecting and serving this country by those also sworn to protect and serve. He has moved away from his home close to Alonzo Kelly Park, has been under the care of a psychiatrist and attending mental health counseling since this happened, prescribed medications, suffers nightmares and headaches, and now has anxiety around police.



Justice For Riou is Justice For All Of Us. America thanks him for his Service.

Call and Demand #JusticeForRiou Today!!

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