{"id":390875,"date":"2026-09-05T00:44:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T00:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/390875\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T00:44:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T00:44:09","slug":"orlando-police-officer-disciplined-after-patrol-vehicle-crash-that-killed-92-year-old","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/390875\/","title":{"rendered":"Orlando police officer disciplined after patrol vehicle crash that killed 92-year-old"},"content":{"rendered":"

ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 An Orlando police officer received an 80-hour suspension after the department concluded he drove his patrol vehicle in an unsafe manner prior to a crash that killed a 92-year-old woman.<\/p>\n

Milagros \u201cMillie\u201d Ortiz was riding in the passenger seat of a Jeep on her way home from a bingo game January 18 when McKuhen\u2019s patrol vehicle struck the SUV in an intersection.<\/a><\/p>\n

Ortiz\u2019s family filed a $92 million wrongful death lawsuit<\/a> against the City of Orlando last month.<\/p>\n

Surveillance video from a traffic camera shows McKuhen was stopped at a red light when he says he saw another driver make an illegal U-turn. <\/p>\n

McKuhen activated his patrol vehicle\u2019s red and blue lights and began entering the intersection, the video shows. But just moments before colliding with the Jeep carrying Ortiz, the emergency lights turned off.<\/p>\n

The State Attorney\u2019s Office later determined McKuhen was not driving recklessly. He will not face criminal charges.<\/p>\n

Investigators with the state attorney\u2019s office later learned the patrol vehicle had a history of maintenance issues with the emergency lights and siren dating back years, records show.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough the lighting equipment may not have been functioning properly, Officer McKuhen is still responsible for operating his vehicle with due care,\u201d an Orlando Police Department supervisor wrote in a July 10 memo recommending the officer be suspended. \u201cHe failed to navigate the intersection safely and exercise due caution and judgment.\u201d<\/p>\n

McKuhen violated an agency policy that states the \u201cdriver of any police vehicle shall operate the said vehicle reasonably and safely, exercising due caution and judgment\u201d, the memo stated.<\/p>\n

According to the agency, McKuhen created a risk to public safety while attempting to investigate a minor traffic violation but he did not break the speed limit or appear to intentionally break traffic laws.<\/p>\n

McKuhen\u2019s 80 hours of suspension were deducted from his personal leave time, records show.<\/p>\n

Weeks before the deadly crash, a Lake County man who spent eight days <\/a>in jail claims McKuhen wrongly identified him as a fleeing driver.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 An Orlando police officer received an 80-hour suspension after the department concluded he drove his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390876,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[154648,1776,28,65357,139,141,140,8416],"class_list":["post-390875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-andrew-mckuhen","tag-crash","tag-florida","tag-millie-ortiz","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-orlando-police-department"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}