Former Miami-Dade Police Detective Sentenced To Prison for Stealing Money From Migrant Workers And Obstructing Justice

U.S. District Court Judge Marcia G. Cooke sentenced former Miami-Dade Police Detective William Kostopoulos, 49, today to 36 months in prison. Kostopoulos was convicted in February 2017 for using his law enforcement authority to violate the civil rights of two motorists as well as obstructing justice.

Acting U.S. Attorney Benjamin G. Greenberg for the Southern District of Florida, Acting Assistant Attorney General Tom Wheeler of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, and Special Agent in Charge George L. Piro of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Miami Field Office, made the announcement.

According to evidence presented during the two-week trial, in 2013, Kostopoulos stopped two separate motorists, both undocumented migrant workers, in order to steal their money, in violation of their rights under the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution to be free from unreasonable seizures of their property. Kostopoulos subsequently obstructed justice by making misleading statements in order to prevent the communication of information about his crimes to federal law enforcement officers.

This case was investigated by the FBI, with assistance from the Homestead Police Department and the Miami-Dade Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Edward N. Stamm and Tonya R. Long of the Southern District of Florida and Samantha Trepel of the Civil Rights Division prosecuted the case.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office, Department of Justice Civil Rights Division and our FBI partners encourage members of the community who have information regarding potential civil rights violations to contact the FBI Citizen Complaint Bureau at (754) 703-2000 or file a report at https://tips.fbi.gov.

Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.