MIAMI — A Miami Florida Highway Patrol trooper is facing a year of probation after being found guilty for falsifying traffic reports, covering up his tracks after waiting weeks to turn them in.
On Friday, Manny Lazaro Melendez, 26, was found guilty of two felony counts of official misconduct in a Miami-Dade case. The judge withheld adjudication, which means Melendez is not a convicted felon.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, with the special condition of his probation that he complete 40 hours of community service at a local church.
The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office says it is “anticipated” that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement will revoke Melendez’s certification as a law enforcement officer, stopping him from being hired at law enforcement agencies.
“When there is an intentional and purposeful misstatement in any portion of police report, even something as seemingly small as the date, issues of credibility and truth are at issue. That is why the charges of official misconduct were originally filed against Officer Manny Lazaro Melendez,” said State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle.
Melendez was charged in June 2019.
In 2018, a FHP investigation found Melendez would wait weeks or months to file traffic crash reports, so he would manually change the dates so as not to get in trouble for turning them in late.
It’s the law that when troopers respond to crashes they need to submit their reports to a state database within 10 days of finishing their investigation.
“Today’s guilty verdict proves that Melendez’s action in changing the dates on his Highway Patrol accident reports, not only harmed the legal rights of the victims but harmed his personal future far more severely than the agency reprimand he sought to avoid,” Rundle said.
