City Council censures De León, Cedillo, Martinez after police clear out demonstrators.
Council reprimands two policemen
The San Juan City Council has censured two of the four police officers charged with assault in the last four days.
The council reprimanded Officer Juan De León, of the 24th Precinct, and Robert Cedillo, of Community Police Battalion 2, after they were cleared of any wrongdoing.
The reprimand was issued following a council meeting Tuesday night in which the cops were cleared of any wrongdoing. One of the officers, Luis Vega, was cleared of any wrongdoing after a two-hour hearing, but council members voted to reprimand Vega after watching him tearfully testify.
At Tuesday night’s council meeting, Councilor José C. Díaz, Jr., said that he was not satisfied with the testimony of Captain Jose Estrada, who is the lead investigator in the case.
Cedillo was similarly cleared of any wrongdoing Tuesday night.
Cedillo said that when the police were chasing the demonstrators in the middle of the night, they were not using any weapons.
“They did not go on a mission to kill anyone,” he said.
Meanwhile, councilors were also considering reprimanding Police Chief William Barrantes, who testified that it took him five minutes before he realized that there was a huge mob of people on the streets.
As the council rejected all the officers’ pleas to drop the case or have a lower sentence, the council voted to reprimand Cedillo.
The council also reprimanded Councilor Juanita Martínez, but that was without explanation.
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