If you test positive for cocaine as a top homicide investigator, you’d better be prepared for the long, slippery slide down the ladder of public dignity and employment…unless you have a damn good reason why the drug was in your blood.
Well, lucky for Miami Beach homicide detective Reinaldo Casas this appears to be the case exactly. After Casas tested positive for cocaine and was fired from the Miami Beach police department in February 13′, he was forced to investigate his own situation. Having never knowingly used cocaine, he eventually figured out that the homemade sex cream that an “old Cuban man” had given him contained the drug.
At a grievance hearing, Casas testified that a buddy, Idilio Godinez, gave him the cream “with the advice that it would help him in his sexual liaisons. Having never knowingly used cocaine, I was baffled, perplexed and confused,” Casas wrote in his grievance. Godinez testified that he got the sex-enhancement cream from “an old Cuban guy” as a gift for giving him some political campaign signs. Godinez claimed he did not know what was in the cream, but had tried it himself and it worked.
After coming to the conclusion that there’s no way Casas could’ve known what exactly was in the concoction; an arbitrator ruled that Casas would be immediately reinstated with his normal $74,745.84 a year salary in addition to receiving back pay.
In a statement to the public, Miami Beach police union lawyer Eugene Gibbons said that the arbitrator made the correct decision in the case.
“Detective Casas is looking forward to resuming his distinguished law-enforcement career with the Miami Beach Police Department in the homicide unit and putting this unfortunate situation behind him,” Gibbons said.
What else can I really say? Justice was served? If for some strange reason I ever found myself in a situation such as this, I’d hope the dice came out in my favor as well.
[h/t Miami Herald]