The Push, the Slur, and the Ramming: A Security Guard’s Worst Shift at a Polk County Resort
You came to work expecting a shift. The polo shirt at the front desk was supposed to be a guest with a question about the rodeo. Instead, the night gave you a hand in your chest, a racial slur in your ear, and the back of your patrol car being rammed by a man who told you he was a Miami police officer. He was not. He was a Chicago police officer, off duty, more than a thousand miles from his beat, and the Polk County Sheriff’s Office has him in custody on a battery charge with a hate-crime enhancement under Florida Statute § 775.085.
This page is written for the security guard, the family of the security guard, and any Florida worker who has been pushed, threatened, or racially abused by a guest or stranger with a badge. We sit on your side of the table. We work these cases in Florida. We are Ralph Manginello and Lupe Peña of Attorney911 — The Manginello Law Firm, PLLC — and the rest of this page is the legal machinery that sits behind what happened to you.
We will not dress up the law. The Florida Battery Statute, the Intentional Tort Statute of Limitations, the Florida Negligent Security Statute, the Florida Workers’ Compensation Exclusivity Rule, the Federal Civil Rights Act, and the Florida Hate Crime Enhancement all converge on an incident like this one. Every clock the law sets is a clock you need to know about. Every record the law forces into existence is a record you need to preserve. Every insurance adjuster who calls you in the next seventy-two hours is a player in a script — and we know the script.
What Happened: The Facts as the Polk County Sheriff’s Office Reports Them
On the evening in question, security personnel at the Westgate River Ranch Resort — a large dude-ranch and resort complex in Polk County, Florida, owned and operated by Westgate Resorts — observed a group, including a man later identified as Dwayne Ocasio, standing around a golf cart in the middle of an internal roadway. A security guard approached and asked the group to move the cart. What followed, as described by Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd at a press availability and reported in the arrest affidavit, is the spine of the case:
- Ocasio directed a racial slur at the security guard.
- Ocasio then shoved the security guard.
- After the initial confrontation, Ocasio got into a vehicle, drove at the security guard’s vehicle, and rammed it, causing property damage to the guard’s vehicle and placing the guard in further apprehension of imminent harm.
Sheriff Judd described the conduct in terms a Florida jury will recognize: a guest of the resort used his hands, his mouth, and his vehicle to assault the man the resort had hired to keep the property safe. Ocasio was arrested on a misdemeanor battery charge, posted a $1,000 bond, and was released. He was relieved of police powers by the Chicago Police Department and placed on desk duty. The criminal case is being prosecuted by the Office of the State Attorney for the Tenth Judicial Circuit, which sits in Bartow, Polk County.
The criminal arrest is the headline. The civil case is the recovery.
The Florida Civil Causes of Action: What the Security Guard Can Sue For
We build the civil case on top of the criminal case. The battery charge in Polk County is corroboration of the facts we will plead in civil court. The following causes of action are the spine of the complaint we would file in the Circuit Court of the Tenth Judicial Circuit in and for Polk County, Florida.
1. Battery Under Florida Common Law
Florida common-law battery is the intentional, unwanted, harmful, or offensive touching of another person. A shove into the body of a security guard while the guard is performing his job is battery. A vehicle rammed into the guard’s patrol car is battery to the person and a separate trespass to chattels as to the vehicle. Florida Standard Jury Instruction (Civil) 401.12 sets the elements the plaintiff must prove: (a) the defendant intentionally touched or struck the plaintiff against the plaintiff’s will; (b) the defendant did so without consent or privilege; and (c) the contact caused injury or damage. The shove and the ram meet every element.
The damages recoverable on a Florida battery claim include past and future medical expenses, past and future lost wages and earning capacity, pain and suffering, mental anguish, loss of enjoyment of life, scarring and disfigurement if any, property damage to the vehicle, and — where the defendant’s conduct supports it — punitive damages.
2. Assault Under Florida Common Law
Florida common-law assault is the intentional creation in another person of a well-founded apprehension of imminent harmful or offensive contact. Florida Standard Jury Instruction 401.11. The vehicle ramming the guard’s car at speed supplies the assault independently of the battery: the act of driving the vehicle at the guard created an apprehension of impact that the guard was not required to wait to be hit by before having a claim. The shove itself, in the moment of the windup, also supports an assault pleading.
3. Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress (IIED)
Florida’s IIED cause of action requires: (a) extreme and outrageous conduct; (b) intentional or reckless infliction; (c) causation; and (d) severe emotional distress. Florida recognizes the tort and applies a high bar. The conduct alleged here — a shove, a racial slur, and a vehicle ramming — meets the outrageous-conduct element. The slur is the aggravator: Florida courts have repeatedly recognized that racial slurs, particularly when paired with physical force, can elevate ordinary misconduct into the extreme-and-outrageous zone. The severe-emotional-distress element is supported by the humiliation of being racially abused at work in front of co-workers and guests, and by the post-incident anxiety that any worker assaulted at their post carries home.
4. Civil Claim for Hate-Motivated Conduct
The Polk County Sheriff’s Office specifically charged the offense with a hate-crime enhancement under Florida Statute § 775.085. That enhancement is a criminal charging tool, not a civil cause of action — but the underlying conduct supports a civil claim for the emotional and dignitary harm caused by race-based abuse. Florida’s civil law treats the racial character of an assault as an aggravator of damages and as a foundation for punitive exposure under § 768.72.
5. Federal Civil Rights Claim Under 42 U.S.C. § 1983
A claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 requires that the defendant acted “under color of” state law to deprive the plaintiff of a federal constitutional right. The threshold question for a § 1983 claim against an off-duty police officer is whether the officer was exercising actual or apparent state authority at the time of the assault. The article recites that Ocasio identified himself to the security guard as a Miami police officer. He was not a Miami police officer. That false identification is significant in two directions at once: it cuts against § 1983 (because asserting fictitious authority is the act of a private party, not a state actor) and it cuts in favor of an IIED claim (the impersonation is outrageous conduct). For the federal claim to succeed, our investigation must produce evidence that Ocasio invoked real authority — flashing a badge, calling for police backup, drawing a service weapon, identifying himself by his real Chicago rank, or relying on police knowledge or training in the encounter.
We plead the federal claim carefully, with the full recognition that the defendant will argue — correctly under the law — that an off-duty officer on vacation is a private person for § 1983 purposes. We never assert the federal claim we cannot prove. We do not abandon it where the facts support it. This is precisely the kind of decision the free consultation is for.
6. Florida Civil Rights Act Claim
The Florida Civil Rights Act, Chapter 760, Florida Statutes, prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, handicap, or marital status in places of public accommodation. The Westgate River Ranch Resort is a place of public accommodation as to its guests. Whether the FCRA supports a claim by a security guard employee against a third-party guest is a different and more limited question; the FCRA is primarily enforced through the Florida Commission on Human Relations and provides specific administrative remedies. We assess FCRA viability in every case and plead it where the facts support it.
The Florida Statute of Limitations: How Long the Security Guard Has to File
“An action for assault, battery, false arrest, false imprisonment, wrongful death, or other injury to the person, founded on negligence, shall be begun within 4 years after the cause of action accrues.”
— Florida Statute § 95.11(3)(o) (battery/intentional torts to the person — 4 years).
The battery, the assault, the IIED, and the hate-motivated civil claim all carry a 4-year statute of limitations under Florida law. The clock starts on the date of the incident. The criminal charge in Polk County does not toll the civil clock. Waiting for the criminal case to conclude is the single most expensive mistake a victim of intentional tort can make.
The federal § 1983 claim borrows Florida’s 4-year personal-injury limitations period. A separate claim under Florida’s civil theft and racketeering statute, § 772.11, would carry a 5-year limitations period if the facts supported a pattern of unlawful activity — the single shove is unlikely to qualify, but the inquiry is part of the case workup.
The workers’ compensation claim against the resort has its own two-year limitations period under Florida Statute § 440.19. A claim for workers’ compensation retaliation under § 440.205 carries a two-year clock from the retaliatory act. Every one of these clocks runs independently. The security guard cannot assume the criminal case protects the civil case.
The action item today is to calendar every clock above and treat them as a single project with a single deadline manager: Attorney911.
Who Can Be Sued: The Defendant Architecture
A civil case is only as valuable as the defendants it can reach. The architecture of this case has four possible pockets.
Pocket One: Dwayne Ocasio, Personally
Ocasio is the obvious pocket. He is a Chicago police officer with steady income, pension accrual, real property (likely Illinois homestead, which is reachable by a Florida judgment domesticated in Illinois under the Uniform Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act), and personal assets. Florida’s homestead protection under Article X, Section 4 of the Florida Constitution protects Florida real property from civil judgments only — Illinois real property is reachable. Florida Statute § 121.131 provides protection for state and local government pensions against creditor claims, but the protection is not absolute, and pre-judgment remedies including writs of garnishment against wages and writs of execution against non-exempt property are available.
The collection risk is real. The collection risk is the same in every intentional-tort case against an individual defendant with significant liability insurance coverage or significant assets. The recovery strategy is to identify the insurance coverage that does apply, attach it, and pursue the personal assets for any judgment that exceeds it.
Pocket Two: The City of Chicago and the Chicago Police Department
The City of Chicago is a different problem. The City of Chicago and the Chicago Police Department do not ordinarily pay for the intentional torts of an off-duty officer on vacation in Florida. Respondeat superior does not reach the off-duty conduct of a Chicago officer at a Florida resort. The City of Chicago’s indemnification of its officers under the city’s rules and the police union’s collective bargaining agreement generally requires that the officer act within the scope of employment, and an off-duty assault is the textbook example of conduct outside the scope of employment.
There is one narrow path. If the Chicago Police Department’s training, supervision, or discipline of this specific officer is shown to have been deliberately indifferent to a known risk of off-duty misconduct, a Monell-style claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against the City and the Department survives. The threshold is high. We do not bring that claim unless the discovery supports it.
Pocket Three: The Westgate River Ranch Resort
The Westgate River Ranch Resort is the deepest pocket. Westgate Resorts is a major operator of resort properties in Florida and across the United States. The resort’s commercial general liability insurance tower is the kind of coverage that takes a battery case from a collection risk into a real recovery. We name the resort, the property owner, the management entity, and the security services provider (if the security is contracted out) and analyze the relationships among them.
The road to the resort’s coverage is the negligent-security framework.
Pocket Four: The Workers’ Compensation Carrier
Florida Statute § 440.11 channels the security guard’s exclusive remedy against the employer into workers’ compensation. Medical bills, partial wage replacement, and disability benefits are paid through the workers’ comp system. The workers’ compensation carrier is subrogated to a portion of any third-party recovery. This means the carrier has a financial interest in the case and may be a strategic ally. It also means the security guard’s net recovery in the civil case is reduced by the workers’ comp lien.
The lien is real. The lien is a number, not a bar. We negotiate the lien down in nearly every case. We explain to the security guard, in plain English, what the lien means in dollars before settlement.
Negligent Security Against the Resort: Florida Statute § 768.0755
“A person or entity having a duty to protect others shall exercise reasonable care to protect against foreseeable criminal acts that are likely to occur in the absence of such care.”
— Florida Statute § 768.0755(1) (duty of care for protection against foreseeable criminal acts).
The Westgate River Ranch Resort owes a duty of reasonable care to its invitees, including the security guard who was working the property. Florida Statute § 768.0755 codifies the duty to protect against foreseeable criminal acts on business premises. The case against the resort stands on the foreseeability of the criminal act and the adequacy of the resort’s security protocols.
The relevant questions for the resort’s exposure include:
- Did the resort have documented security procedures for handling uncooperative guests, guests who refuse to move vehicles, and guests who become physically aggressive?
- Did the resort train security staff on de-escalation, on how to summon law enforcement, and on how to avoid the very kind of physical confrontation that occurred here?
- Did the resort have adequate lighting, supervision, and radio communication on the property that night?
- Did the resort have a documented history of similar incidents on the property that put it on notice that additional security was needed?
- Did the resort properly vet and supervise the security staff it employed?
In every negligent-security case, the security plan is the company. The discovery requests go to the security plan, the training records, the prior incident reports, the supervision logs, and the corporate decisions about how much security the property needed. We send those requests the day we are hired.
The workers’ comp exclusivity rule is a serious obstacle to a direct suit by the employee against the employer. The Florida Supreme Court has consistently applied the exclusivity rule broadly. We look hard at whether the “deliberate intent” exception under § 440.11(1)(b) applies — a narrow but real door where the employer’s conduct is substantially certain to result in injury. We also look at whether any other entity in the resort’s structure — a management company, a security services contractor, a separate property owner — can be sued directly outside the workers’ comp framework.
The Chicago Officer’s Two Pockets: Insurance and Indemnification
Off-duty police officers carry a mix of insurance and indemnification that the public does not see. The investigation must look for all of the following.
Homeowner’s or renter’s insurance. Most personal-lines policies contain an intentional-act exclusion. The exclusion is not always airtight — some policies cover assault and battery as an unintended consequence of an altercation. We read the policy. We do not assume the exclusion applies.
Personal umbrella or excess liability coverage. Many professionals carry personal umbrella coverage above their homeowner’s limits. We send a request for the policy limits letter to every carrier.
Union-provided legal defense. Police unions typically provide a legal defense fund for officers facing criminal and civil charges arising from the officer’s conduct. The fund is not insurance. It does not pay judgments. It pays defense costs. The existence of a defense fund is a signal that the officer has a sophisticated legal team in place — and a signal that the case must be filed properly the first time.
City of Chicago indemnification. Limited. As discussed above. We make the formal request. The denial letter is itself evidence.
Personal assets. Real property, bank accounts, vehicles, investments, retirement accounts subject to garnishment. We examine the public records in Illinois and Florida for asset visibility.
The Evidence Clock: What Records Exist, Who Holds Them, and How Fast They Disappear
This case lives or dies on the evidence. Every piece of evidence has a clock. Every clock is a deadline.
Polk County Sheriff’s Office body-worn camera footage. The Sheriff’s Office has body-cam footage from the deputies who responded and who made the arrest. Florida’s Public Records Act (Chapter 119) makes this footage presumptively public. The records request is filed the same week. The footage captures Ocasio at the scene, in handcuffs, on the body-cam audio. The criminal prosecutor’s office will use it; we will use it. The footage should also capture whatever the responding deputies said on the scene and to the victim, which becomes part of the chain of events. This footage is generally retained for the duration of the criminal case, but the request must go in early because redaction is the routine and redaction can be used to delay.
Westgate River Ranch Resort surveillance footage. This is the single most perishable piece of evidence in the case. The resort’s surveillance video is typically retained on a rolling overwrite cycle of thirty to ninety days, depending on the system, the storage capacity, and the resort’s own policies. A litigation hold letter goes out the same day we are hired, demanding preservation of every camera feed, every door-access log, every vehicle-entry log, and every point-of-sale record from the night in question. We do not assume the resort will preserve on its own. Many resorts treat routine footage as disposable after a cycle or two. Without a written preservation demand, the footage that shows the shove, the ram, and Ocasio’s exit from the property can be gone in weeks.
Westgate incident reports and security logs. The resort’s own internal security reports, dispatch logs, and supervisor reports are generated the night of the incident. The shift log, the radio traffic, the call-out log, the security supervisor’s report — every one of these is a record the resort generates and the resort controls. The preservation letter must demand them by name.
Cell phone video and witness phones. Other guests, other security staff, and the security guard himself may have cell phone video. Cell phone video of an altercation at a resort is not uncommon. We identify witnesses, obtain their contact information, and request that they preserve their devices and accounts. We move fast because witnesses lose phones, change phones, and forget.
Florida Highway Patrol or Polk County Sheriff CAD (Computer-Aided Dispatch) records. The 911 call records, the dispatch log, the unit-arrival times, and the audio recordings of the 911 call are all records the Sheriff’s Office and any responding agency hold. Florida Public Records Act requests get the records. Audio recordings of 911 calls are subject to specific statutory rules in Florida and may be partially exempt for a limited period, but the request must be filed.
Florida crime lab and forensic reports. If the Polk County Sheriff’s Office processes the guard’s vehicle for damage or conducts any forensic analysis, those reports are public records subject to the Public Records Act. The DNA on the guard’s uniform, the fingerprint on the vehicle, the impressions on the cart — every one of these is preserved by the criminal process and accessible to the civil attorney.
Medical records. The security guard’s medical records from the emergency department visit, the urgent care visit, the primary care follow-up, the therapist’s notes, the orthopedist’s notes, the imaging — every piece of paper created by every medical provider in the chain. Medical records are governed by HIPAA but accessible to the patient and to the patient’s attorney under HIPAA. We collect them. We also walk the guard through what not to post on social media and not to say to insurance adjusters before we have a written strategy in place.
Workers’ compensation records. The incident report filed with the workers’ comp carrier, the carrier’s investigation notes, the independent medical examination reports, the adjuster’s notes — these records document the injury and create a separate paper trail that the resort’s insurance team will use against the guard if the records are not handled correctly.
The investigation does not wait for the criminal case. The investigation runs in parallel. The criminal case is one piece of evidence; the civil case is another piece; the records requests, the witness interviews, the video preservation, the medical collection — all of it runs in parallel.
The Insurance Adjuster Playbook: Three Plays You Will Hear and How to Counter Them
The first call from the insurance company is the most important call in the case. We know the script. Here is what the adjuster will say, and here is what the security guard says back.
Play One: “Let me just take a recorded statement so we can get this wrapped up for you.”
The adjuster wants the security guard’s recorded statement before the guard has spoken to a lawyer. The recorded statement is a discovery tool, not a settlement tool. The adjuster uses the statement to pin down the guard’s account of facts and pin down the guard’s description of injuries. The statement is then used against the guard at deposition and at trial in the inevitable “inconsistencies” fight.
The counter. The guard declines the recorded statement. The guard says: “I will be happy to speak with you once I have retained counsel. Please direct all communications to my attorney.” That is the entire response. We send the letter that says the same thing in writing. The adjuster’s recorded statement is not required and is rarely in the guard’s interest.
Play Two: “We just want to know your medical history so we can pay your bills.”
The adjuster wants a blanket medical authorization. The blanket authorization gives the adjuster access to every medical record the guard has ever had — the guard’s old sprain from high school, the guard’s prior anxiety treatment, the guard’s family doctor’s notes from years ago. The adjuster then argues that the current injury is really the old injury resurfacing.
The counter. The guard provides only the records relevant to the date of incident forward. We negotiate the scope of any authorization in writing. We do not give the adjuster the keys to the guard’s entire medical history.
Play Three: “If you just cooperate, we’ll get you a quick settlement.”
The adjuster uses the word “cooperate” to mean “do things my way.” The quick settlement is invariably for a number that is a fraction of the case value. The settlement is paid in exchange for a release that closes the door on future claims, including future medical care that the guard does not yet know he will need.
The counter. The guard does not settle before the medical record is mature. Soft-tissue injuries from a shove can worsen over weeks. A PTSD response to a racially-motivated assault at the workplace can manifest months later. The guard’s treating physicians — not the adjuster’s IME physician — write the narrative about the injury. We settle on a fully developed record, not on the adjuster’s clock.
Play Four (Bonus): “Just take the criminal restitution and move on.”
The adjuster may point to the $1,000 bond and the criminal restitution order as if they were the full value of the case. The criminal case is a separate track. Restitution in a Florida criminal case is paid through the court system and is generally limited to documented out-of-pocket losses. The civil case is the forum for the full measure of damages. The criminal restitution does not cap the civil recovery.
The counter. The guard does not waive the civil case to expedite the criminal case. The two cases run in parallel.
How Much Is the Case Worth? An Honest Range
Every reader of this page deserves a number. The number is a range, not a promise, and the case is not the same as the next case, but a range drawn from the analysis is the honest framing.
For a battery case involving a single shove, a single racial slur, and a vehicle ramming at a Florida resort, with a security-guard victim who received medical attention, missed work, and continues to experience anxiety at the workplace:
- Low end (no lasting physical injury, no missed work, no treatment): $25,000 to $75,000. This is the soft-tissue-only band.
- Mid range (some soft-tissue injury, a few days to a few weeks of missed work, documented medical care, documented anxiety treatment): $75,000 to $250,000.
- High end (documented significant injury, surgery, weeks to months of missed work, ongoing therapy, lasting psychological injury): $250,000 to $750,000 and above.
- Punitive damages: Florida Statute § 768.72 requires clear and convincing evidence of intentional misconduct or gross negligence to support punitive damages. The conduct alleged here — a racial slur paired with a physical assault paired with a vehicle ramming — supports the punitive standard. Florida Statute § 768.73 caps punitive damages at the greater of three times the compensatory damages or $500,000.
Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes.
The size of the recovery depends on the size of the proof. The medical record makes the case. The surveillance video makes the case. The body-cam footage makes the case. The workers’ comp records make the case. The longer the security guard waits, the more the case erodes.
The Florida Process: Where the Case Is Filed, Who Decides, and How Long It Takes
The civil case is filed in the Circuit Court of the Tenth Judicial Circuit in and for Polk County, Florida, the same circuit where the criminal case is being prosecuted. Venue is proper because the incident occurred in Polk County. Service on Ocasio is made under Florida’s long-arm statute, § 48.193, which reaches non-resident defendants who commit tortious acts within the state. We file in state court as the default; we consider federal court in the Middle District of Florida (Tampa Division) where diversity or federal-question jurisdiction supplies an advantage.
The case is a civil jury case. The right to a jury is preserved. The discovery timetable follows the Florida Rules of Civil Procedure. The typical battery case in the Tenth Circuit runs twelve to twenty-four months from filing to trial, depending on the court’s docket, the complexity of the discovery, and whether the case resolves short of trial.
We are ready to try the case. We also know that most cases resolve. The settlement value of a battery case rises sharply once the defense has completed its discovery and the trial date is on the calendar. The patience of the case work is a value driver.
The Two Faces of the Defendants: Westgate and the City of Chicago
The resort’s defense team and the City of Chicago’s defense team will not be working together. They will be working at cross-purposes. The resort’s insurance carrier will want the City of Chicago to share the blame for the conduct of an off-duty police officer; the City of Chicago will want the resort to share the blame for the conduct of a guest on its property. That defense-on-defense tension is leverage for the security guard. We name all of the responsible entities and we let them negotiate with each other while the security guard’s case holds the center.
The Workers’ Compensation Lien and the Net Recovery
The security guard’s workers’ compensation carrier pays medical and partial wage benefits. The carrier asserts a lien against any third-party recovery. The lien is not the security guard’s problem to solve alone; it is our problem to solve with the carrier. We negotiate the lien down in nearly every case. The security guard’s net recovery is the gross recovery minus the negotiated lien, minus our contingency fee, minus case costs. We walk the security guard through the math in writing before any settlement is signed.
The Attorney911 Team: Who We Are, What We Bring
This page is written by the trial team that takes Florida cases for Attorney911 — The Manginello Law Firm, PLLC. We are a trial firm that handles catastrophic injury, wrongful death, commercial vehicle, premises liability, and civil rights cases. We are built to try cases in state and federal court across the country. We are not a volume practice. We are not a settlement mill. We work every case as if it will be tried.
Ralph Manginello is the Managing Partner. He has been a Texas trial lawyer for 27-plus years, since his admission to the Texas Bar on November 6, 1998. He is admitted to practice in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, including the Bankruptcy Court. He is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, where he studied journalism and public relations before turning to the law, and the South Texas College of Law Houston. He worked as a journalist before he went to law school, and the discipline of “what is the actual fact” is a habit he brings to every case. Ralph is a member of the State Bar of Texas, the Houston Bar Association, the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association, the Texas Trial Lawyers Association, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the Pro Bono College of the State Bar of Texas, the Trial Lawyers Achievement Association (Million Dollar Member), and the National Association of Italian Lawyers. He and his wife Kelly are the parents of three children, RJ, Maverick, and Mia. Ralph’s background as both a journalist and a courtroom lawyer is the foundation of our approach: find the truth, document the truth, and tell the truth to a jury.
Lupe Peña is an Associate Attorney on the team. Lupe is male, and we use he/him pronouns. He has been a Texas trial lawyer for 13-plus years, since his admission to the Texas Bar on December 6, 2012. He is admitted to practice in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas. He is a graduate of Saint Mary’s University in San Antonio, where he studied international business, and the South Texas College of Law Houston. Before he came to Attorney911, Lupe spent years inside a national insurance-defense firm — the kind of firm whose clients are the same insurance carriers we now face across the table. Lupe learned Colossus reserve-setting, IME doctor selection, surveillance strategy, and delay tactics from the inside. He now uses that knowledge for injured people. Lupe is fluent in Spanish, and we serve clients fully in Spanish without an interpreter. He is a third-generation Texan with family roots to the King Ranch. He was born, raised, and lives in Sugar Land, Texas. His background is the foundation of our approach to the insurance playbook: know the script before the other side runs it.
Together, Ralph and Lupe work Florida cases in state and federal court, including battery, assault, negligent security, premises liability, civil rights, and workers’ compensation lien negotiation. The work that follows from this page is the work they are built to do.
How Attorney911 Handles a Florida Battery Case Against an Off-Duty Police Officer
When the security guard (or the family member) calls us at 1-888-ATTY-911, the first hour is spent on the evidence clock. We send the preservation letters. We file the Florida Public Records Act requests with the Polk County Sheriff’s Office. We send the litigation hold letter to the resort. We send the medical-record request to the security guard’s treating providers. We send the workers’ comp claim notice. We do not wait to see what the criminal case does. We do not wait to see what the resort’s insurance carrier does. We move.
The free consultation is the next call. There is no fee for the consultation. The security guard (or family) talks to a lawyer, not a screener. We tell the security guard what the case is worth in our best honest estimate. We tell the security guard what the workers’ comp lien is going to do. We tell the security guard what the criminal case means for the civil case and what it does not mean. We tell the security guard how long the case will take and what the security guard has to do to make the case as strong as it can be. If we are the right firm, we sign the engagement. If we are not the right fit, we tell the security guard that too.
Our fee is contingency. The standard fee structure is 33.33% of the gross recovery before trial and 40% of the gross recovery if the case goes to trial. We do not get paid unless we win. Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes. Every case is its own case. Every case is built from the evidence.
Why the Polk County Sheriff’s Office Matters Beyond the Headline
The Polk County Sheriff’s Office is not just the law enforcement agency that made the arrest. It is a source of public records that the civil case will use. The body-worn camera footage, the dispatch audio, the incident report, the arrest affidavit, the booking photo, the criminal history of the defendant as known to the agency, the use-of-force reports, the training records of the responding deputies — all of this is reachable through Florida’s Public Records Act. The records are also evidence of the agency’s own conduct in handling the call. A deputy who failed to interview witnesses, failed to document the racial slur, or failed to preserve surveillance video is a witness whose omissions can be cross-examined in the civil case. We pull the records. We read the records. We use the records.
Why the Chicago Police Department Matters Beyond the Indictment
The Chicago Police Department’s response to the arrest is itself part of the case. The Department’s decision to relieve Ocasio of police powers and place him on desk duty is the Department’s own admission that the conduct is incompatible with the office. The Department’s internal policies on off-duty conduct, on out-of-state travel with a service weapon, on identifying oneself to other agencies, and on reporting arrests to supervisors — every one of these policies is relevant. We make the Open Records Act request to the Chicago Police Department for the Department’s file on Ocasio. The file may be partial, may be redacted, may be slow — but it is reachable.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I sue an off-duty police officer for battery in Florida?
Yes. An off-duty police officer is a private person for purposes of a Florida civil battery claim when the officer is off duty and not acting under color of state law. The shield does not protect a person from the consequences of a shove and a racial slur. The criminal charge in Polk County confirms that the State of Florida does not consider Ocasio to have been acting as a police officer at the time of the incident. The civil battery case follows the same analysis.
How long do I have to file a battery lawsuit in Florida?
Four years from the date of the incident under Florida Statute § 95.11(3)(o). The clock starts the day of the shove, not the day of the arrest. The criminal case does not pause the civil clock. The workers’ compensation claim has a two-year clock under § 440.19. The federal § 1983 claim borrows the four-year Florida personal-injury clock. The earliest clock governs the calendar.
Can I sue the City of Chicago or the Chicago Police Department?
Limited. The City of Chicago and the Chicago Police Department are not ordinarily liable for the off-duty intentional torts of an officer on vacation. There is a narrow path through 42 U.S.C. § 1983 if the Department’s training or supervision of this officer was deliberately indifferent to a known risk of off-duty misconduct. The path is narrow. The path is real. We do not bring the claim unless the discovery supports it.
Can I sue the Westgate River Ranch Resort for the assault?
Indirectly. Florida Statute § 440.11 makes workers’ compensation the exclusive remedy the security guard has against the employer for injuries in the course and scope of employment. The direct suit against the resort is generally barred. There are narrow exceptions — the deliberate-intent exception, claims against non-employer entities in the resort’s structure, and potential workers’ compensation retaliation claims. The security guard’s workers’ compensation claim is the channel for medical and partial wage benefits against the employer. The third-party tort claim against Ocasio is the channel for full damages.
How much is my battery case worth?
The honest answer is a range, not a number. A battery case with a shove, a racial slur, and a vehicle ramming — with a security-guard victim who received medical attention and missed work — sits in the $75,000 to $250,000 mid range in our honest estimate. The range moves up with documented significant injury, surgery, weeks to months of missed work, lasting psychological injury, and a punitive-damages record. The range moves down with soft-tissue-only injury and no lasting effect. The proof makes the case. Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes.
What happens to the criminal case?
The criminal case is being prosecuted by the Office of the State Attorney for the Tenth Judicial Circuit in Bartow, Florida. A misdemeanor battery conviction can carry up to one year in the county jail. The hate-crime enhancement can add additional penalties. The criminal restitution order, if any, will be limited to documented out-of-pocket losses. The criminal case is parallel to the civil case and does not replace it.
What about the racial slur? Does that change the damages?
Yes. A racial slur in the course of an assault is an aggravator of damages. It supports the IIED cause of action. It supports the punitive-damages standard under Florida Statute § 768.72. It supports a higher compensatory award for emotional distress. The slur is also evidence of the defendant’s intent and of the animus behind the conduct, which the jury is permitted to consider.
What evidence will disappear if I wait?
Almost everything. The resort’s surveillance footage is the most perishable — it overwrites on a rolling cycle of thirty to ninety days. Cell phone video on guests’ phones is perishable. Witness memories decay. The body-cam footage is retained by the Sheriff’s Office, but the Florida Public Records Act request has to be filed. The workers’ compensation claim has its own statutory window. Every day you wait is a day of evidence that may be gone by the time the lawyer needs it. The preservation letter goes out the day you call.
Will the officer’s union pay for his defense?
The Fraternal Order of Police and the Chicago Police Department’s legal defense fund will typically provide a defense lawyer for the officer facing criminal and civil charges arising from the officer’s conduct. The defense fund is not insurance. It does not pay judgments. The existence of a defense fund means the officer has a sophisticated legal team and that the civil case must be filed properly the first time.
Do I have a discrimination claim too?
The Florida Civil Rights Act (Chapter 760) and Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act protect employees from race-based discrimination in the workplace. The most direct application here is the security guard’s potential hostile-work-environment claim against the resort, based on a third party’s racial abuse. The claim is separate from the battery claim. We assess FCRA and Title VII viability in every case and plead them where the facts support them.
Can I recover punitive damages in Florida?
Florida allows punitive damages in intentional tort cases. The plaintiff must prove by clear and convincing evidence that the defendant was personally guilty of intentional misconduct or gross negligence. Florida Statute § 768.72 sets the standard. Florida Statute § 768.73 caps punitive damages at the greater of three times the compensatory damages or $500,000. The conduct alleged here — a shove, a racial slur, and a vehicle ramming — supports the punitive standard.
How long does a Florida battery case take?
A typical battery case in the Tenth Judicial Circuit runs twelve to twenty-four months from filing to trial, depending on the court’s docket and the complexity of the discovery. Most cases resolve before trial. The settlement value of a battery case rises sharply once the defense has completed its discovery and the trial date is on the calendar. Patience is a value driver. The case work is a value driver. The evidence is the value driver.
What does the workers’ compensation case do to my civil case?
The workers’ comp carrier pays medical and partial wage benefits. The carrier asserts a lien against any third-party recovery. The lien is a number, not a bar. We negotiate the lien down in nearly every case. The security guard’s net recovery is the gross recovery minus the negotiated lien, minus our contingency fee, minus case costs. We walk the security guard through the math in writing before any settlement is signed.
What if Ocasio has no insurance and no assets?
We investigate first. Most police officers carry personal umbrella or excess liability coverage, even if the homeowner’s policy contains an intentional-act exclusions. The City of Chicago’s indemnification may apply in part. The pension may be reachable for the right kind of claim. The personal assets — bank accounts, vehicles, real property outside the protected homestead — are reachable. We do not abandon a case because the first layer of insurance denies coverage. We read the policy. We exhaust the insurance avenues. We then evaluate the personal-asset recovery and the strategic value of the case.
Call Attorney911 Now
If you are the security guard in this case, or the family of the security guard, the next call is 1-888-ATTY-911. The call is free. The consultation is free. There is no fee unless we win. The consultation is with a lawyer, not a screener. We will tell you what your case is worth in our best honest estimate. We will tell you what the evidence is. We will tell you what the workers’ comp lien is going to do. We will tell you how long the case will take. If we are the right firm, we will sign the engagement. If we are not the right fit, we will tell you that too.
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The case is the evidence. The evidence is the clock. The clock is now.
Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes.