Miami Deputies Sue Over 'The Rip' Portrayal

Two Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office sergeants, Jason Smith and Jonathan Santana, filed a defamation lawsuit on May 6 in a Florida federal courthouse against Artists Equity, claiming The Rip used real-life details that harmed their reputations.

The suit challenges the Netflix film The Rip, which dramatizes a 2016 case that recovered roughly $21 million to $24 million in Miami Lakes and debuted in January on Netflix, the complaint says.

Artists Equity denied the allegations in a March demand response letter included with the complaint, and an attorney for the company declined to comment, according to the filings and reports.

The complaint says the film’s fictional crimes — including conspiring to steal seized drug money, murdering a supervising officer, communicating with cartel members, arson and executing a federal agent — created a false impression of the plaintiffs.

The officers seek compensatory and punitive damages, attorney fees and a public retraction and correction, and the filings cite a March column saying the plaintiffs have not identified which characters correspond to them.