Over the 2005-2006 winter break, campus security guard Khiyata Ragin said she was the victim of an armed robbery at her guardhouse on Ponce de Leon Boulevard and Stanford Drive. Further investigations made by campus police said that Ragin’s claims were false, and she was arrested for filing a false police report.
Ragin was an employee of 50 State Security, a company formerly contracted by UM for security services and personnel. Rina Rosaro, a representative of the firm’s human resources department, declined to comment but did say that Ragin was no longer an employee at the company.
Security guards for the campus are now being contracted through Vanguard Security. Repeated calls by The Hurricane to the security division of public safety were not returned.
Ragin’s case was filed at the 11th Judicial Circuit of Florida on Jan. 19 and was closed March 22. She was charged with obstructing official police business but was not sentenced to probation or fined. A spokesperson for the court said that this probably meant Ragin was given a lighter sentence of community sentence, but would not comment further.
According to Sgt.George Baixauli, an investigations sergeant with public safety, this was the first instance of a false police report being filed on campus. Although time and manpower was wasted in order to follow up on Ragin’s claims, Baixauli stated that the incident would not set a precedent for the way campus police conduct their investigations.
“People need to realize that filing a false police report is a crime and will not be tolerated, but this case will not influence in one way or another the way we answer to cases,” Baixauli said.
Marina Nazir can be contacted at m.nazir@umiami.edu.