An award ceremony for officers in Florida’s Broward County took an awkward turn when a city commissioner publicly rebuked one of the deputies being honored.
A group of deputies from the Broward Sheriff’s Office were being presented with awards last week when Tamarac City Commissioner Mike Gelin took the microphone and asked deputy Joshua Gallardo to come back to the front of the room.
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“Joshua Gallardo, will you come down for a second? It’s good to see you again,” Gelin said before confronting him about his 2015 arrest. “You probably don’t remember me, but you’re the police officer who falsely arrested me four years ago.”
Gallardo, who was being honored for his role in the arrest of a gang member who was in the United States illegally and wanted for murder in El Salvador, nodded throughout the confrontation.
“I believe you’re a rogue police officer,” Gelin said. “You’re a bad police officer, and you don’t deserve to be here.”
The deputy smiled and gave a thumbs up, with the officials at the front standing awkwardly, hands clasped in front of them.
Tamarac Mayor Michelle Gomes was handed the microphone after the tirade.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we appreciate, as a whole, BSO and everything that you do for us. Thank you for your service to our community. We appreciate you. Please take that away from here tonight,” she said.
Gomes told ABC 10 after the incident that she was “completely shocked” by the outburst.
“This was not something we were expecting,” Gomez recalled. “It was supposed to be a wonderful morning. We were giving the awards for the BSO deputies of the month. It was supposed to be a feel-good time.”
Gelin was arrested in 2015 for resisting arrest without violence after he allegedly refused to clear out of a crime scene where a man was found beaten.
The state attorney never moved forward with the case, and the charges were dropped.
“When I shared my video with the state attorney’s office to prove that I did nothing wrong, they declined to file charges against me,” Gelin said. “I had a productive conversation with the sheriff yesterday and I will try to resolve things and move forward.”
