Violence & Brawls ·
A Miami Beach Struggle, a Shooting and a Plea Agreement
Police said Barret Robbins attacked three officers answering a burglary call in January 2005. He later challenged their use of force; a 2006 plea agreement brought five guilty findings, probation and continued treatment.
Barret Robbins was seriously wounded when Detective Mike Muley shot him during a struggle with three Miami Beach police officers on Jan. 15, 2005. The officers had been answering a burglary call at a building housing a pub, a gym and a jewelry store. Four days later, prosecutors charged the former Oakland Raiders center with three counts of attempted felony murder—one for each officer involved.
The pub owner had called police after Robbins forced his way into the building and refused to leave, according to a police report described by The Associated Press. Officers found him in a women’s restroom. What followed was, in the police account, a succession of attacks: Robbins beat Officer Colin Pfrogner to the floor, picked up Detective Mark Schoenfeld and slammed him against two walls, then grabbed Muley by the face and rammed his head into a corner.
The report said Robbins grabbed Muley’s forearms before the detective shot him in the torso. Robbins then dropped to his knees, grabbed his chest and slapped the gun out of Muley’s hand. All three officers were injured. Muley was treated at a hospital for head injuries and released; Robbins was taken to Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital and was initially reported in critical condition.
Police spokesman Bobby Hernandez described the shooting as an officer’s attempt to keep control of his weapon. “The officer was literally fighting for his life, trying to get Mr. Robbins from getting his gun,” he said. Robbins later gave a much briefer account in a deposition quoted by CBS Miami in 2012: “I remember just running into them and pushing them and getting shot.” The CBS report also described his civil-rights lawsuit alleging “excessive force” and an “unwarranted assault and battery.” The lawsuit challenged the officers’ use of force, but Robbins’s brief deposition account did not address every detail in the police account.
The criminal case ended in a plea agreement, not a trial resolving every detail of the encounter. On Aug. 21, 2006, Robbins was placed on five years’ probation under an agreement approved the previous week by Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Leon Firtel. The judge found him guilty of five charges, including attempted murder and battery; the remaining charges were dropped. The disposition included more than an order for treatment, but it did not establish that the struggle happened exactly as police had described it.
Firtel also ordered Robbins to continue treatment for bipolar disorder and avoid alcohol while on probation. At a pretrial hearing, Robbins said he had “come a long way” since the fight and understood that he must remain on medication.