The first source is a notable hub of anti-police rhetoric so take it with a grain of salt.
Hialeah Police Officer Charged with Civil Rights ViolationsA federal grand jury in Miami, Florida, yesterday returned a two-count indictment against Hialeah Police Department Officer Jesus Manuel Menocal Jr, 32, for depriving two women of their civil rights.
According to the indictment, in June of 2015, while working as a police officer with the Hialeah Police Department in Florida, Officer Menocal is alleged to have
willfully deprived a minor female of her right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures when, for his own sexual gratification, he directed her to remove her clothing. The indictment further alleges that the offense included kidnapping, and the use and threatened use of a dangerous weapon.On another date in 2015, while working as a police officer, Officer Menocal is also alleged to have exposed himself to a woman and grabbed her. This offense also included the use and threatened use of a dangerous weapon.
Menocal is scheduled to have his initial appearance today at 2 P.M. before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Becerra (Case No. 19-20822-CR-Williams/Torres).
This investigation remains ongoing. Anyone with additional information is encouraged to call the FBI’s Miami Field Office at 754.703.2000.
An indictment is merely a formal accusation of criminal conduct. The defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
The indictment was announced by Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband, U.S. Attorney Ariana Fajardo Orshan, and FBI Special Agent in Charge, George Piro, who also acknowledged the efforts of the Hialeah Police Department and the Miami Dade County State Attorney’s Office.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ilham Hosseini and Edward N. Stamm of the Southern District of Florida and Special Litigation Counsel Samantha Trepel of the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/hialeah-police-officer-charged-civil-rights-violationsThe title of the first article doesn't fully convey the seriousness of the crimes so here is another article. It sounds like the prosecutor should also be investigated for covering up the crimes.
FBI arrests Hialeah cop accused of sexual assault by four women and girlsFBI agents walked into Hialeah’s police department Friday morning and arrested a decorated officer, Sgt. Jesús Menocal Jr., who has faced allegations over the past four years that he sexually assaulted and threatened four girls and women.By the afternoon, federal prosecutors had charged Menocal with violating the civil rights of two women, one a minor, by unlawfully detaining them and pressuring them for sex while working as a police officer. He is also accused of threatening them with the use of a dangerous weapon, his police-issued firearm.
The two-count civil rights indictment carries up to life in prison — because of a “kidnapping” factor — on the first charge and up to 10 years on the second. Following a hearing in federal court, Menocal, 32, received a $250,000 bond co-signed by his wife and father, a former chief of police in Sweetwater. He faces an arraignment hearing on Wednesday. He must surrender his firearms and concealed weapons permit.
Menocal had survived an earlier investigation by the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office in 2016, when prosecutors declined to file sexual battery and false imprisonment charges against him. But the FBI’s public integrity squad took up the case, focusing on whether he used his authority as a police officer to pressure the girls and women into having sex with him.
The long-running allegations against Menocal gained new attention in November when the Herald published an investigation into how Velázquez, the chief, and state prosecutors handled his case.
The Herald investigation determined that the lead prosecutor for the state attorney’s office did not interview three of the four accusers and lost portions of the case file. It also found that Velázquez brought Menocal back to active duty before he was formally cleared and did not discipline him despite sustaining an internal affairs complaint.https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/hialeah/article238346583.html