WINTER PARK, Fla. — 9 Investigates found major similarities in a former Winter Park police officer's DUI report from a 2013 case and an unrelated case in 2014.
Driver Stefan Wetzel was pulled over by Winter Park Sgt. Rafael Berrios in May 2014. In a report, Berrios wrote that Wetzel was swerving before he was pulled over, but several paragraphs down, Berrios referred to Wetzel as "Mr. Duncan."
"When looking at the report, the names were different," said Wetzel's attorney, Matt Olszewski.
Channel 9 learned that Berrios had arrested a man named Marcus Duncan for DUI in 2013. WFTV compared the police reports and found that the majority of Berrios' account of the arrests were identical.
"There was some suggestion there was a different report out there that may have been (copied) and pasted to my client's report," Olszewski said.
The reports had a matching discrepancy, where Berrios mistakenly wrote that each man was having difficulty maintaining "her" balance. The similarities raised so much concern that the State Attorney's Office dropped Wetzel's DUI charge.
"You cannot accurately report the facts when you're cutting and pasting based upon something that happened in another case," WFTV legal analyst Belvin Perry said.
"All they have to go by is the cop's word, and if the cop's report is identical, that sets up all kinds of credibility issues for them," Olszewski said.
Perry said some of the officer's cases could hinge on Berrios' reputation.
"It all goes down to credibility," he said.
Channel 9 contacted Winter Park police to ask about the nearly identical police reports and whether there could be more of them. A spokeswoman said she would look into the issue.
Perry said someone will now have to review Berrios' past cases.
"No. 1, every case he has worked, even with convictions, will undergo additional scrutiny," he said.
In 2013 and 2014, Berrios was reprimanded for "altering a performance evaluation," and officials felt that he showed "gross neglect in performance of assigned duties."
The spokeswoman said the department is still talking to its attorney about what officials can legally say about why Berrios ended up leaving the department.
WFTV
