June 24, 2026

MIAMI – QPWB Miami Partners Rebecca Aroca, Dexter Romanez, and Trelvis Randolph secured a complete defense verdict on behalf of a national security services company and one of its site supervisors in a high-profile civil dispute. The plaintiff, a former reality TV personality, sought a multi-million dollar award in damages. Following a hard-fought, two-week trial in Miami-Dade County, the jury rejected the plaintiff's claims, returning a total defense verdict. 

Overview of the Case

The litigation arose from an incident in September 2023 at a condominium property in Miami Beach. Following a report made by on-site security personnel and a subsequent investigation by local law enforcement, the plaintiff, a long-time elderly resident of the building, was arrested and briefly detained. This encounter and the resulting arrest set the stage for a high-exposure dispute centered on the actions and reporting duties of the property's security team.

Key Difference-Makers

• Rebecca Aroca – Partner, Miami
• Dexter Romanez – Partner, Miami
• Trelvis Randolph – Partner, Miami

Administrative Support

• Brittany Goran - Paralegal, Miami
• Roxanna Soto - Legal Assistant, Miami

Claims Made Against Our Client

The plaintiff filed suit against the security firm and its supervisor, alleging defamation and the negligent or false reporting of a crime. He contended that the defendants’ statements directly precipitated his arrest, resulting in severe emotional distress, public humiliation, and professional damage.

To support these claims, opposing counsel built their trial strategy the security supervisor and on-site staff intentionally or negligently provided false, highly damaging information to responding police officers, initiating a chain of events that led to an improper arrest. Aroca dived deep into the plaintiff's reality TV background, finding evidence of a poor reputation before this incident. She spent months gathering this information and securing subpoenas to national media organizations to get the information property authenticated for use at trial. She has 12+ hours of body worn camera footage that had to be clipped, edited, and litigated extensively. Plaintiff objected to the majority of evidence and hours were spent fine-tuning the proper hearsay workarounds that Aroca developed through her years as a prosecutor. Aroca additionally procured probable cause, defamation, and PTSD experts to counter Plaintiff’s claims. 

The plaintiff's team relied heavily on the emotional weight of this testimony, emphasizing the distress and reputational fallout experienced by an elderly man. They attempted to characterize the security personnel's actions as an overreach outside their scope of duty, aiming to leverage jury sympathy to secure a massive compensatory award.

Defense Strategy

Faced with a demanding set of facts and an emotionally charged narrative, the QPWB defense team executed a strategy focused strictly on statutory burdens of proof and the limited, clearly defined role that a security provider plays on a property.

Aroca, Romanez, and Randolph demonstrated that the on-site security staff operated entirely within their designated function, showing that the subsequent investigation and eventual decision to arrest rested solely with the independent discretion of local police. 

Second, the defense held the plaintiff to the strict legal elements required to prove defamation and negligent reporting. Through meticulous parsing of the record evidence, the trial team showed that the statements made by security staff were accurate, non-malicious reports of observed conduct. By keeping the jury’s focus locked onto objective evidence rather than the plaintiff’s public stature or appeals for sympathy, the defense neutralized the emotional components of the case.

Impact on Final Outcome

The defense’s rigorous adherence to the record and clear delineation of a security guard's role completely eroded the plaintiff’s theory of liability. After a two-week trial, the jury deliberated and rejected the plaintiff's claims, returning a total defense win for the security company and its supervisor.

Because the defense team had served proposals for settlement early in the litigation, the defendants expect to pursue the recovery of their attorneys' fees and costs under Florida’s offer of judgment statute.

Unique Aspects of the Case

The most challenging element of this litigation was overcoming the inherent risk of juror bias toward a prominent, elderly public figure. Security companies frequently face uphill battles in front of juries when a resident is arrested, as their operational roles are easily mischaracterized. The defense team successfully mitigated this risk by educating the jury on the narrow, essential parameters of property security.

Predicting the Future

This outcome highlights QPWB’s capability to successfully defend corporations, national service providers, and management personnel against high-exposure, high-profile liability claims. The speed of the verdict underscores the firm's capacity to distill complex, emotionally charged multi-week trials into clear, legally sound arguments that protect a client's financial and operational reputation.

Key Actions in This Case

• Role Definition and Separation: Educated the jury on the precise, limited boundaries of private security, proving that law enforcement conducted an independent investigation and made an autonomous decision to arrest.
• Strict Burden-of-Proof Enforcement: Held the plaintiff to the rigorous statutory elements of defamation, systematically demonstrating that the reports made by security staff were lawful and accurate.
• Sympathy Neutralization: Successfully anchored the jury's attention to objective trial records, preventing a highly recognizable public figure’s celebrity status from dictating the outcome.
• Strategic Fee Positioning: Implemented early proposals for settlement under Florida's offer of judgment statute, positioning the clients for post-trial recovery of legal fees and costs.

About QPWB

Quintairos, Prieto, Wood & Boyer, P.A. is one of the fastest growing law firms in the United States providing a different focus on what it means to provide responsive service to clients and team members. With a national presence of 57 offices and a comprehensive scope of over 130 practice areas, QPWB delivers legal representation in litigation, regulatory, and corporate matters to a diverse range of industries. This scope and rapid expansion has attracted unique legal talent from all different backgrounds and experiences which has made them the largest minority-owned law firm in the country.