Four Former Miami Firefighters Charged After Noose, Phallic Symbols Found on African-American Coworker's Family Photos

Four firefighters have been charged for allegedly defacing a coworker's family photos, which included phallic symbols and putting a noose over one of the frames.

Miami-Dade County State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle announced the charges on Tuesday. Alejandro Sese was charged with tampering with a witness, one count of petit theft and three counts of criminal mischief. Harold Santana, Kevin Meizoso and Justin Rumbaugh were each charged with one count of criminal mischief.

The charges stem from an alleged incident that occurred on September 8, 2017, when City of Miami Fire Rescue Lieutenant Robert Webster left a few family photos out in a sleeping area. Rundle said it violated a few "unwritten rules" between firefighters as to where they placed personal items.

Sese shared the sleeping area with Webster and allegedly suggested that the photos should be taken from the sleeping area to draw phallic symbols on them. The family pictures were allegedly taken out of the frames, then, the firefighters drew penises on them and replaced them inside the frames.

The next day, a firefighter being housed at the station in anticipation of Hurricane Irma noticed the images that were drawn on the photos. The day after that, September 10, Webster returned to his sleeping quarters and saw a noose was draped over one of the frames. Rundle explained that the investigation hasn't determined who placed the noose on the frame.

An investigation was launched into who defaced Webster's property and Rundle said they discovered the firefighters met at Meizoso's house. Rundle claimed they decided truthful information should be given to investigators, but Sese requested that the men leave out the fact that he was the one who brought the photographs to the patio.

Given that Webster is African-American and a noose was placed on the frame, it would be a reasonable assumption for the public to make that this was a targeted attack. However, Rundle dismissed the idea that the photographs were defaced because of Webster's race.

"There was no evidence that was uncovered that Lieutenant Sese or any of the others were motivated to defame the photographs as a result of racial prejudice," Rundle said. "We do file hate crimes as all of you know it's just in this particular case there was no evidence to support that."

While there isn't evidence to support hate crime charges, Webster spoke out about what the noose meant to him when he saw it. He explained that a noose to an African American is a lynching and called it a "terror tactic" used to oppress a group of people and keep them living in fear.

Rundle added that there was a culture within the fire department where drawing phallic symbols on objects as a "practical joke" was a common practice. She credited Fire Chief Joseph Zahralban for taking steps to combat the "boorish" and "callous" behavior.

Throughout the press conference, Rundle repeatedly mentioned the great contributions of firefighters and first responders make to the community and the public's gratitude for them.

"We never want a handful, just a handful of bad actors, to in any way detract from the professionalism of our City of Miami fire department," Rundle said. "They deserve our absolute pride and joy. We're not gonna let a handful of folks … because they were involved in boorish, callous behavior, detract from what the better good of this wonderful brotherhood of these special public servants do."

In November, the four firefighters who were charged were fired from their jobs, as well as, two others, identified by WSVN as Captain William Bryson and David Rivera.