Jimmy Rodriguez Vega, Civil Rights Violation, Puerto Rico 2024

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Table of Contents

Fatal Beating Highlights Police Brutality in Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico – In a disturbing incident that has shaken the community, former Puerto Rico police officers Jimmy Rodriguez Vega and David Colon Martinez were sentenced for their roles in the fatal beating of Jose Luis Irizarry Perez, 19, on November 5, 2008. Rodriguez Vega was sentenced to serve 33 months in prison for violating Irizarry Perez’s civil rights by striking him with a police baton during the incident.

Colon Martinez, on the other hand, received a 24-month sentence for making false statements to a Special Agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and to the federal grand jury during the federal civil rights investigation.

The sentencing comes after all six former Puerto Rico police officers who pled guilty for their roles in the beating and obstruction of the subsequent civil rights investigation have been sentenced.

According to documents filed in connection with the underlying guilty pleas, Rodriguez Vega and former Puerto Rico Police Sergeant Erick Rivera Nazario violated the constitutional rights of Irizarry Perez by striking him with their police batons while Colon Martinez physically restrained Irizarry Perez during an election evening celebration at the Las Colinas housing development in Yauco, Puerto Rico.

As part of his guilty plea, Rodriguez Vega admitted that after Rivera Nazario struck Irizarry Perez, while he was restrained and not posing a threat to any officer, Rodriguez Vega swung his own police baton as if it were a baseball bat into the victim’s forehead.

U.S. District Court Judge Juan M. Perez Gimenez issued the sentence, which will be followed by three years of supervised release. During the three-year term, the defendants will be under federal supervision, and risk additional prison time should they violate any terms of their supervised release.

“The former police officers convicted for their roles in the fatal beating and obstruction of the subsequent investigation violated their sworn oaths to the young victim, his family, and the public at large,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta. “Unfortunately, egregious civil rights violations by a few individuals, such as in this case, damage the public’s trust in law enforcement. That’s why the department will steadfastly continue to investigate and prosecute these matters, but also work with law enforcement to rebuild that trust and ensure all individuals’ civil rights are protected under the law.”