Florida officer fired after video showed her calling man ‘punk’ after he called for help wins back job

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Florida officer fired after video showed her calling man ‘punk’ after he called for help wins back job

A Florida police officer who was fired last year after an arrest video showed her calling a man a “punk” and yelling at him after he called 911 for help has been reinstated to the department.

The Palm Beach Gardens Police Department fired the officer, Bethany Guerriero, in September after an internal investigation stemming from the arrest of Ryan Gould,

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of West Palm Beach reported.

Gould had called police after a man brandished a firearm following a dispute between Gould and the man’s wife at their apartment’s community pool, according to a federal lawsuit Gould filed in January.

Gould called police to “intervene and protect his safety,” the suit said.

Guerriero was reinstated this month following a “union-forced arbitration and a binding determination by the arbitrator to return her to work without back pay,” a spokesperson for the city said Wednesday.

She is in retraining and will be assigned to the records division, the spokesperson said.

The police department and an attorney for Guerriero did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday.

Eric Rice, an attorney for Gould, said he was “disappointed that the police department ******* to recognize the significant trauma suffered by Ryan.”

“He sought protection when he was threatened with a firearm, and, instead of finding safety with the officers, he was held at gunpoint. We have seen no action that will prevent these incidents from continuing to happen,” Rice said in a statement Wednesday.

The suit accused Guerriero of speaking to Gould “angrily” and “disrespectfully” during the incident in May 2023, telling him to shut his mouth and mocking him for wearing nail polish on his toes.

Body camera video released by Gould’s attorney showed that seconds after she arrived, Guerriero pulled her firearm out and pointed it at Gould after having told him to keep his hands out of his pockets.

Gould put his cellphone on the ground and then lay face down. He repeatedly told Guerriero and another officer that he had not committed a ****** and that he was not the person with the ****.

Guerriero placed Gould in handcuffs, the video showed, and told him that he was being detained “because you don’t want to listen.”

“That’s not a ******,” he responded. “Are your bodycams on? I called you guys for help because this guy’s brandishing a **** at me.”

The lawsuit said that Gould was wearing only swim shorts and Crocs and that “it was clear that he did not possess a *******.”

At one point, Guerriero is heard calling Gould a “punk” and seemingly mocking him over his painted nails.

“I’m in charge, not you,” she said. “And your blue nail polish, cute.”

As Gould continued to ask what ****** he had committed, Guerriero told him to “keep your mouth shut.”

“I don’t care. I’m not going to do it. Arrest me,” he said, cursing at the officer.

In the video, Guerriero told a supervisor that Gould was “amped up on something” and repeatedly reached into his pockets. The body camera and security video released by Gould’s attorney showed that he reached into his pocket only one time to grab his cellphone.

Gould was taken to jail but was released before he was processed, according to the lawsuit.

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