Miami Deputies Sue Ben Affleck and Matt Damon Over 'The Rip' Movie

The Lawsuit Against Ben Affleck and Matt Damon

Two Miami sheriff's deputies have filed a lawsuit against Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, claiming the Hollywood actors' portrayal in a Netflix crime drama makes them look like 'dirty cops'.

The Event Details

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

The Data Analysis

• The money was found in 24 buckets containing a million dollars each – hidden behind drywall in the property.
• The haul represented the largest ever recovered by the Miami-Dade police department.

The Impact Analysis

The lawsuit's 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. 'When you rip something, you're stealing something,' Santana told 7 News Miami, referring to the crime thriller's title. 'We never stole a dollar.'

The Prediction

It is not the first time The Rip, which was released in January, has angered members of the south Florida community. The Guardian has contacted Artists Equity for comment. Netflix, which is not part of the deputies' lawsuit, settled a defamation case in 2022 with the chess grandmaster Nona Gaprindashvili, who said she was defamed in its drama The Queen's Gambit.