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| Miami Police Major Nabbed in Sex Sting Former Chief Candidate May Face Solicitation Charge June 26, 2000 By Richard Zitrin MIAMI (APBnews.com) -- Prosecutors are weighing whether to charge a respected police commander, who was one of two finalists for police chief last month, with soliciting sex during a weekend sting, police said today. Maj. Juan Garcia, an 18-year veteran of the Miami Police Department, has been reassigned to desk duty pending an investigation by the Miami-Dade state attorney's office into an allegation that he might have solicited sex from an undercover police officer posing as a prostitute, authorities said.
Garcia was stopped late Friday night or early Saturday on Biscayne Boulevard near 79th Street, said Angel Calzadilla, senior executive assistant to Police Chief Raul Martinez. The major had been at a farewell dinner earlier that night for former Assistant Police Chief John Brooks, who resigned amid a barrage of criticism that followed the federal raid on the home of Cuban refugee Elian Gonzalez' relatives in April, Calzadilla said. Well-respected officer Calzadilla said Garcia is a "very high-caliber person" who is well-respected by officers on the force. "This is a head-spinner," Calzadilla told APBnews.com. "We're still in disbelief. We're still hoping there is an explanation when he's afforded the opportunity to give one. [We're in] total, total, total shock. If you told me to make a list of possible people [who might be accused of such a crime], he wouldn't be on the bottom of it, he wouldn't be on it." Garcia, 40, was commander in Little Havana until Martinez last month named him to head the Special Investigations Section, which oversees drug, money laundering and prostitution investigations, Calzadilla said. The undercover officer involved in the weekend sting is not under Garcia's command, he said. Expected to become chief García and Martinez were the two finalists for the chief's job last month after former Chief William O'Brien resigned amid the fallout from the Gonzalez raid. Mayor Joe Carollo was angry that O'Brien had not told him that federal agents were about to seize the 6-year-old and return him to his Cuban father. City Manager Donald Warshaw, who also was ousted following the raid, picked Martinez to head the department, but told The Miami Herald that he believed Garcia eventually would become police chief. Richard Zitrin is an APBnews.com national correspondent
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