Teed Off: Miami Police Officer Suspended for Golfing After Hit-and-Run

Come hell or high water, Miami police officer Reynaldo Goyos was going to get to the driving range to tee off with his boss at Trump National Doral Golf Club on October 8, 2022.

"I woke up that day, I wanted to go to the golf range to work on my game," Goyos would later tell internal affairs investigators. "I had my clubs already inside my marked unit, so I went in my unit to Trump National Doral."

Goyos, whom an arbitration panel reinstated to his post in 2014 after the police chief fired him for shooting an unarmed man to death, drove his police car to meet up with his supervising commander, Manuel Abreu, to practice their swings on their day off. In the two hours the pair spent together at the golf club, Goyos apparently neglected to mention a minor detail about his morning: On the drive over, he sideswiped a car on the Palmetto Expressway, then drove off.

While Goyos was enjoying his morning on the links, Julio Gonzalez-Vega and his mother were in Miami Lakes dealing with the aftermath of the accident. They filed a crash report, telling a Florida Highway Patrol officer they were driving north on the expressway en route to work when a marked City of Miami police SUV collided with the right side of their car between NW 25th and 36th streets. The officer, who did not pull over, got off at the next exit.

Gonzalez-Vega tells New Times that his mother injured her forehead in the accident but did not receive medical attention.

"When the impact happened, I looked in the passenger mirror and I just see the police cruiser. It was really the only one there that could have done it, so I already knew it was him," Gonzalez-Vega says, noting that he kept driving after the collision.

It didn't take long for an internal affairs investigator to confirm what happened.

GPS information logged Goyos' vehicle at the accident location, and upon inspecting both vehicles, the investigator found Goyos' SUV had damage consistent with the reported crash: a dented front driver-side fender and white paint marks from Gonzalez-Vega's car.

Leaving the scene of a crash with property damage is a second-degree misdemeanor that carries a penalty of up to 60 days in jail and a $500 fine. Drivers involved in a crash that causes damage are required to stay at the scene and file a report with the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. (So long as no one is injured, those involved in the crash can "self-file" the report, according to the department.)

The Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office declined to pursue charges against Goyos and told the internal-affairs investigator to "proceed administratively," according to the internal affairs report.

Ultimately, Goyos received a 200-hour suspension without pay and a reprimand after internal affairs cited him for failing to report the accident and driving his police car outside the city limits while off duty. Abreu, his supervisor, also received a reprimand for failing to address Goyos' misuse of a marked police vehicle.

Gonzalez-Vega says he was not compensated for the damage to his vehicle.

In February 2023, before the suspension was handed down, internal affairs spoke with Goyos about what transpired that October morning. He said that as he was driving down the highway, he was adjusting the GPS on his phone and looking for his computer when he heard a loud bang and noticed his driver-side mirror was pushed in.

"I thought it was just my side mirror that got it. I tried looking to see if there was any other damage while I was on the Palmetto," he said, according to the internal affairs report. "I didn't see him stop....So in my mind, I determined he hit me, there was no damage to his car, and he kept going."

Goyos said he stopped at a bank after exiting the highway and noticed "a small dent above the wheel well." He decided it was too late to call in the accident and that he should instead keep his golfing appointment.

"I should have called it in. That was my fault," he told investigators.

Rodney Jacobs, executive director of Miami's Civilian Investigative Panel (CIP), says there is little accountability for officers involved in accidents while driving their patrol cars. 

"It's a problem for police departments because of the settlements that are involved, and the city pays out these large settlements over a span of time," Jacobs tells New Times. "There's really no accountability on the individual officer or department to change those behaviors, and because of that you get continued repeat of these situations."

Jacobs confirmed the panel is investigating Goyos' hit-and-run incident.

Abreu told internal affairs that Goyos never mentioned on the golf course that he had just been involved in a car accident. He said he found out about the incident later that day when Goyos reached out to him to let him know internal affairs had called. As for why he didn't confront Goyos at the driving range about using a patrol vehicle for unauthorized, off-the-clock activity outside the City of Miami, Abreu said, "It didn't come to mind."

"I was off. I went there for something totally different," Abreu told internal affairs.

Ten years ago, Goyos was fired for fatally shooting Travis McNeil, an unarmed 28-year-old Black man, during a 2011 traffic stop. McNeil and Kareem Williams were leaving the Take One Lounge in Little River when three unmarked police cars stopped McNeil for allegedly driving erratically, New Times previously reported. A local and federal task force had been monitoring the club for gang activity as part of an undercover sting operation.

Goyos said he feared for his life and shot into the vehicle three times after McNeil ignored commands to show his hands and went to grab a black object. But neither man was armed, and the police found a black phone on the floor of the driver's side near McNeil, the object he may have been reaching for. Williams was hit twice by Goyos' bullets but survived.

McNeil was the seventh Black man killed by Miami police during an eight-month span. Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernández Rundle, who has been criticized over reports that she never charged a cop for an on-duty fatal shooting during her three-decade tenure, declined to prosecute Goyos.

A year after his 2013 firing, Goyos won his job back and $72,000 in back pay after an arbitrator determined the officer had reason to believe he was in danger when he opened fire.