{"id":79705,"date":"2025-12-11T20:58:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T20:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/79705\/"},"modified":"2025-12-11T20:58:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T20:58:07","slug":"comedian-hannibal-buress-settles-miami-police-suit-for-200k","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/79705\/","title":{"rendered":"Comedian Hannibal Buress Settles Miami Police Suit for $200K"},"content":{"rendered":"

The City of Miami will pay $200,000 to settle a lawsuit alleging one of its police officers falsely arrested<\/a> comedian Hannibal Buress in 2017 on a bogus disorderly intoxication charge.<\/p>\n

On Thursday morning, several weeks after Buress and the city\u2019s attorneys decided to settle the 2020 case \u2014 in which Buress alleged that Miami Police Department (MPD) officer Luis Verne<\/a> arrested him on a bogus charge after he mocked him during a night out in Wynwood in 2017 \u2014 city commissioners voted unanimously to approve the settlement with the comedian.<\/p>\n

Buress is a stand-up comedian best known for his work on\u00a0The Eric Andre Show <\/a>and his acting role as\u00a0Lincoln Rice\u00a0on\u00a0Broad City<\/a>. His attorney didn\u2019t respond to New Times\u2019 request for comment.<\/p>\n

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On December 9, 2017, Buress was walking to his hotel from a Wynwood bar after a night of drinking with friends during Art Basel when he\u00a0asked Verne if he could give the officer $20 to call him an Uber ride to his hotel because his phone battery was dead. Verne declined. After a verbal exchange about women Buress had seen Verne flirting with, Verne ordered him off the street. Buress went into a bar seeking a charger or help, but Verne followed and again told him to leave for being \u201ctoo drunk.\u201d Outside, Verne activated his body camera, capturing the encounter that led to Buress\u2019 arrest.<\/p>\n

Buress stepped in front of Verne and said into his body-worn camera: \u201cHey, what\u2019s up?! It\u2019s me, Hannibal Buress! This cop is stupid as fuck.\u201d<\/p>\n

The cop, officer Luis Verne, cautioned Buress to leave (and had reportedly done so several times previously), but as captured in\u00a0body-worn camera footage later released by the police department<\/a>,\u00a0Buress continued talking into Verne\u2019s camera: \u201cHey, what\u2019s up, YouTube!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAll right,\u201d\u00a0Verne replied, \u201cput your hands behind your back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Verne\u00a0arrested Buress for misdemeanor disorderly intoxication,\u00a0a charge prosecutors would later drop. (Buress claimed that Verne arrested him because he was \u201cjust salty that\u00a0he roasted his ass.\u201d)<\/p>\n

In July 2020, three years after the incident, Buress\u00a0filed a federal lawsuit\u00a0<\/a>against the city, the police department, and two Miami police officers, Verne and Elio Villegas. Buress alleged wrongful arrest and claimed that Villegas, who\u00a0arrived after the arrest,\u00a0failed to intervene. He contended that the \u201cfalse\u201d arrest caused him to lose gigs and suffer emotional distress.<\/p>\n

The federal lawsuit stalled for years in Florida\u2019s Southern District Court as Villegas filed motions to dismiss the claims, stating that he didn\u2019t know the arrest was unlawful and that his participation was covered by what is known as\u00a0qualified immunity<\/a>, the legal principle that shields cops from being sued personally for actions on the job.<\/p>\n

In June 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit denied Villegas\u2019 motion to dismiss and barred him from claiming qualified immunity<\/a>, clearing the way for the case to proceed. The city was dismissed from the lawsuit this past April, and in November, Buress and the city\u2019s attorneys ultimately reached a settlement.<\/p>\n

As\u00a0New Times<\/a>\u00a0previously reported, almost a year before Verne arrested Buress, in January 2017, the officer had violently choked a man and slammed his head into a railing at Miller\u2019s Ale House in Kendall after knocking back some drinks with fellow off-duty officers.\u00a0A witness said Verne had \u201cattacked\u201d the man, though the cops claimed the Ale House guest had hurled \u201cobscene\u201d comments at Verne, including calling him a \u201cpig.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is a breaking story and will be updated as events warrant. <\/p>\n

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