A 7-year veteran of the Miami Police Department has been arrested for one count of armed kidnapping, and one count of sexual battery.
The officer was arrested after an Internal Affairs investigation. A Miami-Dade judge signed an arrest warrant, which led to the officer being taken into custody.
Since armed kidnapping is punishable by life in prison, the officer is being held without bond.
The officer is being charged under a Florida statute that specifically makes it a crime to commit sexual battery if the offender is a law enforcement officer.
Florida Statute section 794.011(4)(g) makes sexual battery by a law enforcement officer a first-degree felony. Sexual battery, on its own, without a weapon, and against a person who is not a child, is a second-degree felony.
Eric Matheny is a criminal defense attorney representing clients charged with sexual battery in Miami-Dade County and Broward County.