{"id":954034,"date":"2026-05-12T04:07:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T04:07:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/954034\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T04:07:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T04:07:14","slug":"miami-sheriffs-deputies-sue-ben-affleck-and-matt-damon-over-the-rip-movie-miami","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/954034\/","title":{"rendered":"Miami sheriff\u2019s deputies sue Ben Affleck and Matt Damon over The Rip movie | Miami"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two Miami<\/a> sheriff\u2019s deputies have filed a lawsuit against Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, claiming the Hollywood actors\u2019 portrayal in a Netflix crime drama makes them look like \u201cdirty cops\u201d.<\/p>\n

The officers, Jonathan Santana and Jason Smith, deputies with the Miami-Dade county sheriff\u2019s office, are seeking defamation damages from the actors\u2019 production company Artists Equity. The Rip is a dramatization of a 2016 drugs bust<\/a> on a private residence in Miami Lakes in which $24m cash was recovered.<\/p>\n

The money was found in 24 buckets containing a million dollars each \u2013 hidden behind drywall in the property \u2013 and represented the largest haul ever recovered by the Miami-Dade police department, which transitioned into a sheriff\u2019s office in January 2025.<\/p>\n

The Netflix movie<\/a>, with Damon and Affleck in lead roles, presents a tale of temptation and trust, given the large sum of money in the immediate and unsupervised custody of a team of narcotics agents. The lawsuit\u2019s plaintiffs, who were part of the real-life team that made the bust on which the fictionalized account in the film was built, say The Rip portrays them in a negative light.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you rip something, you\u2019re stealing something,\u201d Santana told 7 News Miami<\/a>, referring to the crime thriller\u2019s title. \u201cWe never stole a dollar.<\/p>\n

\u201c[They\u2019re] pretty much saying, you know, how many buckets of money did I steal?\u201d<\/p>\n

It is not the first time The Rip, which was released in January, has angered members of the south Florida<\/a> community. Bryan Calvo, the Hialeah mayor, slammed the movie and its lead actors after they chose to place the scene of the raid in his city \u2013 and not its immediate neighbor where the real marijuana stash house was located.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis movie is a slap in the face of our law enforcement personnel,\u201d Calvo said at a news conference<\/a> at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cMovies can tell a story, but they are fiction. We respect fiction, but our work here, and the men and women of the Hialeah police department, is to defend our residents and defend the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

An attorney representing Santana and Smith told 7 News that the lawsuit was filed because the officers had suffered \u201csubstantial harm to their personal and professional reputations\u201d from their representation by Affleck and Damon.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey portrayed police officers as dirty, they portrayed my clients as dirty,\u201d the lawyer, Ignacio Alvarez, said. \u201cNow their reputations are hurt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alvarez noted that the lawsuit \u2013 filed on 6 May in a Florida federal courthouse \u2013 contends the pair should also have been paid as consultants, as another officer not involved in the raid was.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf an individual got paid for the story then they should be compensated for being present,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Neither of the deputies is mentioned by name in the movie. That does not preclude a defamation action being filed, but it generally sets the bar higher for its success, according to libel lawyers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe description of the fictional character must be so closely aligned with a real person that someone who knows that person would have no difficulty linking the two,\u201d Lloyd Jassin, a publishing attorney, wrote on his blog Copylaw<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor a novel or other fictional work to be actionable, readers must believe the allegedly defamatory statements are actually about the plaintiff.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to a report<\/a> Monday on WCVB News, attorneys representing Artists Equity \u2013 the company the actors founded jointly<\/a> in 2022 \u2013 denied the allegations in a March demand response letter included with the original complaint.<\/p>\n

The film used fictional names, settings and storylines \u2013 and the movie\u2019s disclaimer made clear the story was dramatized and not intended to portray real people, the report said.<\/p>\n

The Guardian has contacted Artists Equity for comment.<\/p>\n

Netflix, which is not part of the deputies\u2019 lawsuit, settled a defamation case in 2022 with the chess grandmaster Nona Gaprindashvili, who said she was defamed in its drama The Queen\u2019s Gambit, the New York Times reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Gaprindashvili, who was mentioned by name in the series\u2019 final episode, sued over the \u201cdevastating falsehood\u201d that she had never played against men \u2013 whereas in reality she had played against and defeated many.<\/p>\n