Miami Cops Go Rogue – Stage Fake Repossession

A Miami-Dade police officer has been accused of using her badge to falsely repossess a Polaris all-terrain vehicle on behalf of an acquaintance, then taking it to her own home. Leyla Perez, an administrative officer with the South District, has been charged with third-degree grand theft of a vehicle and official misconduct. Perez, 46, was jailed on Wednesday and is now free on bond. A court docket does not list a defense attorney, and it was unclear if she had retained one.

According to an arrest warrant filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court, the 2016 Polaris was purchased by Jessica Wright, who eventually could no longer afford the payments. She entered into an agreement with a couple, Luis Rodriguez and Daissel Castillo, to have them take over the monthly payments and possession of the Polaris in 2017. But years later, in 2020, Wright texted Castillo to say that a payment had been missed, and that she needed to take out a loan to pay off the balance. “Wright did not give her any indication that she was going to have the property repossessed or removed from her residence,” the warrant said.

Then on March 3, 2020, Officer Perez showed up to Castillo’s home in the 18800 block of Southwest 218th Street. With her were officers Jonathan Burdette and Lewis Diaz, who had been ordered to help with a repossession by a sergeant, Safiuddin Mohammed. According to the warrant, Perez told the couple they were there to repossess the ATV. When the couple insisted that they had never missed a payment, Perez told her to bring out the vehicle and “it was going to get nasty,” the warrant said. Perez wound up turning over a receipt, but it did not have a Miami-Dade police case number. “Castillo stated that she was not provided any other paperwork and she believed that Perez was doing a favor for Wright,” she said.

But after the ATV was “repossessed,” Castillo went to pick up a meal and saw Officer Diaz riding the ATV with “Perez and Burdette as escorts,” the warrant said. Castillo followed the ATV to an unknown home nearby. Detectives later learned that the home belonged to Perez, who later arranged for Wright to sell the vehicle to another Miami-Dade police couple, secretary Mileidy Ramirez and Officer Michael Ramirez.

Internal affairs investigators learned that no repossession action had been initiated through the police department

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