More than five months after a 92-year-old grandmother died in a crash with an Orlando police cruiser, the case still isn’t settled. Prosecutors have declined to charge the officer who was driving. A city commissioner is pressing for answers anyway. Newly released street-camera video has kept hard questions alive. The woman was identified as Milagros “Millie” Ortiz.
Ortiz was on her way home from her weekly bingo game in the early hours of January 18. She was riding in the passenger seat of a friend’s Jeep. Around 1:51 a.m., at the intersection of Semoran Boulevard and Hoffner Avenue, a marked Orlando Police SUV ended up striking the Jeep, driven by officer Andrew McKuhen.
In early June, the State Attorney’s Office for Florida’s Ninth Judicial Circuit announced it was opting not to file criminal charges against McKuhen. Prosecutors ran an independent review of the situation and examined traffic and surveillance video as well as vehicle data, witness accounts, and maintenance records. There seemed to be no real evidence that the officer was acting recklessness, at least to the degree that criminal charges would apply.
But that wasn’t the end of the matter, not by a long shot. The original crash report found McKuhen at fault for the wreck. Street camera video shows the cruiser’s emergency lights coming on as it entered the intersection, then switching off again before impact. City Commissioner Tony Ortiz has been pushing the city for answers since it’s been such a confusing situation.
The Questions That Still Remain
Investigators are still wondering what, exactly, happened with the vehicle’s lights. The video makes it pretty clear that the cruiser’s emergency lights were on, then off, in the seconds around the crash. There’s just no good answer as to why. There was no sign that the officer turned them off on purpose. But that hasn’t satisfied everyone, because it’s such a vague finding.
The second question is whether the officer was actually on duty or not. According to WESH, Commissioner Ortiz said the police chief privately told him that McKuhen was on duty when the crash happened. But when the chief was asked directly he avoided offering any answers while interviewed at City Hall.
Why the Crash Didn’t Lead to Charges
It might seem strange that the officer was blamed for the crash, but the prosecutors didn’t press charges. There are a couple ways that “true” blame can be assigned though: a police crash report that can assign fault for how a wreck happened. But a criminal charge needs more. Prosecutors generally have to show a driver acted with criminal negligence or recklessness, not just that they made a mistake that caused a death. And that’s still pretty murky here.
With this case, prosecutors just saw a tragic case. Understandably so, but not quite enough for criminal charges. The State Attorney’s Office also admitted mistakes of its own. But none of that changes the outcome for the Ortiz family. A 92-year-old woman went out for bingo and never came home. Now, months later, the people asking why still don’t have the full answers.