Bad Blood Leads to Demotion of Decorated Officer

The City of North Miami’s continued attack on former Assistant Police Chief Neal Cuevas has reached a new low.

At 6:59 a.m. on Jan. 24, 2022, the city busted down Cuevas, North Miami’s longest serving and most decorated police officer, from sergeant to patrolman, with an effective date to be determined.

These developments cap nearly five years of bad blood between Cuevas and Police Chief Larry Juriga, command staff and city management.

This episode started June 2, 2017, when Cuevas, as assistant chief, wrote a blistering memorandum attacking the city’s “miscarriage of justice” in its campaign to discredit and ultimately fire Emile Hollant, who was shift commander on July 18, 2016, the day behavioral therapist Charles Kinsey was shot by a member of North Miami’s SWAT team. Hollant was repeatedly cleared of wrongdoing and sued the city, which settled the case for an undisclosed amount.

As soon as Juriga became police chief in March 2018, he demoted Cuevas three ranks to sergeant. Only then did the negative evaluations start to replace Cuevas’ previously stellar ones.

Before that demotion, Cuevas, now 67 and a 47-year veteran, was on the command staff for 15 years, a SWAT team commander for 20 years, and the department’s longtime public affairs officer. Even today, he retains some clout. His fellow officers elected him as their Police Benevolent Association (PBA) representative and he chairs the city’s pension board.

Cuevas has retained outside PBA lawyer and former Coral Gables Mayor Don Slesnick to appeal the demotion.

Miami Lakes trial lawyer Michael Pizzi is representing Cuevas before the personnel board, replacing PBA lawyer Daniel Vazquez. Pizzi also represents Cuevas in a highly publicized state whistleblower suit prompted by the demotion, as well as a federal age discrimination suit.

“This seems to be a vendetta bordering on obsession to get Neal Cuevas,” said Pizzi. “It is sad and cringeworthy the lengths they are going to destroy him. This is really a full-court press and I’ve never seen anything like it. The message they’re sending is that if you don’t toe the party line, they will engage in a scorched earth strategy to get rid of you.”

Cuevas’ demotion had been drafted May 28, 2021, but the department lowered the boom as he was getting off his Jan. 24 midnight shift, after Slesnick had left the country for a week and before the personnel board hearing that evening. The alleged primary offense: dishonesty.

A centerpiece of the four-page Notice of Disciplinary Action is an erroneous statement by Cuevas’ then lawyer Vasquez, in defending a “failure to supervise” accusation on a 2020 domestic violence call. In March 2021 Vasquez wrote: “Sgt. Cuevas does not speak Spanish. As a result, he did not understand everything that was going on.”

Cuevas is of Puerto Rican extraction and fluent in Spanish. A hand-printed note with Juriga’s signature at the bottom of the demotion notice says: “The severity of sergeant Cuevas’ actions, specifically lying under oath, leads me to recommend that he be demoted from the rank of sergeant to the rank of police officer.”

Cuevas is now scheduled to argue his case before the personnel board March 28 or April 25.

On Dec. 13, Pizzi asked for a continuance of the Dec. 20 date for Cuevas’ testimony and believed it had been granted. When they failed to show up, the board ordered them to return and show cause.

Douglas Hindmarsh, personnel board chair, then grew more frustrated with the city at delayed, off point or missing responses to his emails, and criticized Assistant City Attorney Jennifer Warren for representing the city’s interest rather than the independent board’s.

“Jennifer is not acting like a board attorney. She always takes the city’s part … Obviously, there’s a disconnect and lack of trust between the city and the board … The integrity of this board will not be jeopardized under my watch,” Hindmarsh said.

Cuevas’ personnel board appeal of two “needs improvement” evaluations may not be on Hindmarsh's watch much longer, though. At the Jan. 25 city council meeting, City Attorney Jeff Cazeau announced that he would ask the city council on Feb. 8 to remove Hindmarsh from the personnel board – and also bar him from serving on any city board.

Cazeau says “several people” approached him citing comments Hindmarsh allegedly made “causing great liability to the city … and which I will not tolerate.”

Cazeau did not specify further and did not return calls from the Biscayne Times for comment. Hindmarsh, an attorney, has served on the board for 20 years and represents the city’s employees.