Jessica Mooney alleged she was assaulted in a Broward County jail shortly after testifying in the criminal trial of a Fort Lauderdale police officer.
FORT LAUDERDALE, FL — Eight days after a Fort Lauderdale police officer was acquitted in a battery case in which Jessica Mooney testified against him, Mooney was arrested and taken to the Broward County jail, where she said deputies threw her to the floor and beat her.
Mooney’s allegations followed her role as a witness in the case against Fort Lauderdale police Officer Victor Ramirez. A cellphone video recorded in February 2015 showed Ramirez pushing a homeless man, Bruce LeClair, to the pavement at a downtown bus terminal and striking him in the face. Mooney was present during the encounter, which was recorded by her then-fiancé, and she later testified at Ramirez’s trial. Ramirez was acquitted of the criminal charge in March 2016.
On March 24, 2016, eight days after Ramirez’s acquittal, Fort Lauderdale police arrested Mooney after a dispute involving a restaurant bill. Mooney maintained that the bill had been paid. She was also accused of neglect involving her infant child. Reporting on the case later showed the theft allegation was dropped. Miami New Times reported in 2018 that Mooney pleaded no contest to the child-neglect charge, paid a fine and did not admit guilt.
The confrontation that left Mooney injured occurred after she was transferred to the Broward County Sheriff’s Office main jail. Mooney said she argued with personnel about her arrest and asked Deputy Amanda Moreno for her name and badge number. Mooney said Moreno’s hair covered the badge and that she reached toward it to move the hair aside. Deputies gave prosecutors a different account, saying Mooney yelled profanities and violently pulled Moreno’s hair.
Mooney said Moreno then forced her face against fingerprinting equipment and that several other deputies joined the confrontation after she went to the floor. Photographs published after the incident showed extensive bruising and swelling, including injuries around her eye. Mooney was eventually taken to a hospital for treatment after spending two days in custody.
A jail surveillance recording captured portions of the confrontation but did not provide a clear view of everything that happened once Mooney was on the floor. Scott Hecker, an attorney who represented Mooney, said he was permitted to view the recording and disputed the deputies’ account that Mooney made a violent grabbing motion. He said the footage showed several deputies over Mooney after she went down.
The Broward State Attorney’s Office investigated the incident but concluded there was insufficient evidence to bring criminal charges against Moreno or other deputies. An assistant state attorney’s close-out memorandum said the recording showed Moreno returning toward Mooney and falling to the ground, but prosecutors determined Moreno’s intent at that point was unclear. The surveillance footage was not publicly released at the time, with prosecutors citing an exemption related to government security systems.
Mooney later pursued civil litigation over the incident. Her attorneys also raised the timing of the encounter because it occurred shortly after her testimony in Ramirez’s case. But available reporting did not establish that the Broward deputies involved knew about Mooney’s testimony, and prosecutors found no evidence showing that the jail confrontation was retaliation for her role in the earlier case. Mooney’s attorney Robert Selig later said the circumstances would have to be examined through the legal process rather than assumed from the timing alone.
The dispute therefore centered on two sharply different accounts of what happened inside the jail: Mooney maintained that deputies used excessive force after she sought a badge number, while deputies said her actions toward Moreno prompted their response. Prosecutors declined to bring criminal charges against the deputies, while Mooney continued to challenge their account through civil litigation.
Author note: Last updated Oct. 3, 2026.