A Miami Gardens Police officer is out of jail after posting bond Friday following accusations of domestic violence.
Kolei McKinney, 41, voluntarily surrendered to authorities Thursday with his attorney. He is facing several charges, including aggravated assault with a firearm.
According to the arrest report, McKinney and the woman involved had been in a romantic relationship for about eight months.
The woman told police the two got into a verbal argument about two weeks ago that escalated into a physical confrontation. She said they were driving in separate cars when McKinney began driving recklessly. She told investigators she asked him to pull over so they could calm down, and that McKinney then got into her car.
The woman alleged McKinney pulled out a gun and pointed it toward the windshield while making threats. She also told investigators he began choking her.
McKinney’s attorney, Stephan Lopez, strongly disputed the allegations, saying in a statement:
“Officer McKinney vehemently denies these allegations that were manufactured by an obsessed woman who has been stalking him and harassing him and has done this to many other men, most of whom are also in law enforcement, despite the fact that she is married herself to a corrections officer and has five kids. She has harassed Officer McKinney incessantly, his wife his friends and other people to get at him. Officer McKinney tried to get an injunction against her for stalking and harassment, but he was unable to obtain an injunction.
“In fact, she has a permanent injunction issued against her for her erratic, obsessive, and stalking behavior. She did this to Officer McKinney because he broke off the relationship with her and chose instead to work things out with his wife and stay through marriage counseling. The alleged victim vowed to take revenge against him because of the breakup, and she did so by fabricating these allegations against him. Officer McKinney is a good officer and Navy veteran, a man of good character who fell prey to this woman. It is a shame that someone can just make up an allegation about a police officer and that person gets arrested on nothing more than her word. Despite the fact that my client cooperated with the Opa-locka Police Department’s investigation, surrendered himself and gave a sworn statement under penalty of perjury and provided records to support his sworn statement, the Opa-locka Police Department chose to ignore and omit those facts and records from Officer McKinney’s Arrest Affidavit.”
NBC6 checked public records for the attorney’s claim that a permanent injunction had been issued against the woman in another case involving a different individual, but could not find records supporting that claim.
McKinney did not comment on the allegations when approached outside the Miami-Dade County jail.
When asked about his attorney’s claim that the allegations were false, McKinney said, “No comment.”
The Miami Gardens Police Department says McKinney has been placed on administrative leave without pay.
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