No charges for Orlando officer in crash that killed 92-year-old, state attorney's office says

The State Attorney’s Office in Orange County is not filing charges against the Orlando police officer involved in the crash that killed 92-year-old Milagros Ortiz in January.The original police crash report found their own officer was at fault for not yielding the right of way during the collision at the intersection of Hoffner Avenue and Semoran Boulevard."What we hope the Ortiz family and this community know — above all else — is that Ms. Milagros Ortiz was seen. Her life mattered. And this review was conducted in a manner worthy of her," State Attorney Monique Worrell’s office said in a statement sent exclusively to WESH 2 Investigates on Friday. An Orlando police public information officer said in an email that the department supports the decision to close the case with no charges.“We want to note that this case was never referred to our Office for prosecution,” the statement from Worrell’s office said. “We proactively requested the investigation because we believe it is our responsibility — not merely our prerogative — to ensure that the questions of grieving families and a watchful community are answered, and that accountability is never left to institutional inertia.”After a review of the evidence, including witness statements, surveillance-camera videos and vehicle-maintenance records, prosecutors determined the driving of Officer Andrew McKuhen did not rise to the level of recklessness that’s required to charge him with vehicular homicide.The family of Ortiz retained high-profile civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump."Oftentimes, when you have people investigating themselves, it seems to be a hint of impropriety," Crump said in early February.Who was Milagros Ortiz?Ortiz was the matriarch of her family and her loved ones describe her as the life of the party. "I love you all and I think we should do this more often, get together, that's what we're family for," she said in a video shared with WESH 2 Investigates.Daughter Evelyn Alicea said her mom was “a strong 92, a vibrant 92.”Ortiz's daughters said a friend was driving their mom home from her weekly bingo game in the early morning hours of Sunday, Jan. 18.“Just because you're a police officer, that doesn't allow you to just go and run a red light to do whatever it is that you're doing,” daughter Judy Santiago said.State Attorney’s Office closes the case with no chargesWESH 2 Investigates obtained the case disposition memo that provides new details from the Orlando police traffic homicide investigation into the deadly crash, a few miles north of the Orlando airport. It reveals that the officer’s attorney said "McKuhen had been attempting to conduct a traffic stop on a vehicle that had made an illegal U-turn on the west side of the intersection."The State Attorney’s Office on Friday morning denied a records request for surveillance video from the street cameras and a nearby 7-Eleven, saying in an email it is “confidential/exempt” pursuant to a state statute."My suggestion, it kind of look like he got tired of waiting at the light," witness Jose Rodriguez told WESH 2 Investigates.The memo includes a statement that Rodriguez provided investigators."I believe the officer did not see the vehicle coming to him going toward the airport, because his view was blocked from the vehicles that stopped," Rodriguez said.Prosecutors said McKuhen’s speed was below 20 miles per hour until two seconds prior to the crash.His marked Ford Explorer reached 32 miles an hour when it hit the driver’s side of the Jeep carrying Ortiz. The driver was injured, but she survived.Ortiz died two days later in the hospital."I could have expected that maybe from a drunk driver,” Alicea said in January, “but it never in a million years I would have thought it was a police officer that was gonna hit her."According to the memo, McKuhen hit the service brake a half second prior to the crash and "there is no evidence that McKuhen intentionally turned off the emergency lights."But the prosecutor’s report includes multiple reported problems with the officer’s vehicle."The maintenance logs document a history of issues related to the lights and sirens on McKuhen's vehicle. McKuhen's vehicle had previously been in a crash," said Assistant State Attorney Brian C. Hagner, who is the Traffic Homicide Unit chief.That crash, according to the memo, happened on March 9, 2020, prior to McKuhen joining the force in September 2024. Orlando police had no comment when asked by email about maintenance records for McKuhen’s vehicle. WESH 2 Investigates informs Ortiz’s family of prosecutor’s decisionOrtiz’s family learned Thursday about the findings in the April 27 SAO memo after receiving a call from WESH 2 Investigates. "The fact that a fatal crash occurred is not evidence of reckless driving. Florida caselaw is replete with examples of cases where the driving that led to a fatal collision was found not to be reckless," Hagner wrote near the end of the memo. “Due to the lack of evidence showing that Officer McKuhen’s driving in this case was reckless, the State should decline to file the charge of Vehicular Homicide against Officer McKuhen.”State Attorney Worrell’s office is acknowledging a “critical failure” in how the case was initially handled, saying “a victim advocate was not immediately assigned.” The SAO addressed that issue in the lengthy statement sent to WESH 2 Investigates:“That gap was caused, in part, by devastating reductions in federal Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) funding that have severely diminished the capacity of victim advocacy services across our office. These cuts are not abstract policy — they translate into families in crisis who do not receive the support they are owed. In this instance, a family in the depths of grief did not have an advocate beside them from the beginning, and that is unacceptable. We take responsibility for that failure. We are committed to ensuring it does not happen again. And we will continue to advocate forcefully for the restoration of VOCA funding, because every victim deserves support from the very first moment they need it.“We reached out to both the surviving victim and the family of Ms. Ortiz to ensure they knew of our review and to give them the opportunity to be heard. To date, we have only been able to make contact through legal counsel representing the surviving victim. We have not yet been able to reach Ms. Ortiz's family directly — and that matters deeply to us. We will not stop trying. We urge them to contact this Office. They deserve to hear our findings from us, directly and personally — not through press releases or secondhand accounts.”Orlando police said on Friday that the department’s internal affairs investigation into whether McKuhen violated any department policies is “still active and not finished yet.”