Florida judge throws cops in prison for framing black teen — after prosecutors asked for leniency

A pair of former police officers in Biscayne Park, Florida were sentenced to up to a year in prison this week for their role in framing a black teenager for a string of burglaries.

The Miami Herald reports that former Biscayne Park Police officers Charlie Dayoub and Raul Fernandez were given the maximum one-year sentence this week, even though they had hoped to avoid prison time altogether by cooperating in an investigation implicating former Biscayne Park Police Chief Raimundo Atesiano.

U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore slammed prosecutors for only recommending home confinement for one officer and a one-year probation for the other.

"It would have been a slap on the wrist, and it would have sent entirely the wrong message -- particularly to the minority community," Moore said during the sentencing. "To think that they can come into court and get a slap on the wrist is insulting to the men and women in law enforcement."

Both officers had given grand jury testimony implicating Atesiano, who pleaded guilty last month to conspiring to deprive suspects of their civil rights by pressuring his officers to frame innocent men of color for local crimes.