Miramar police officer pleads guilty to aggravated child abuse; sex with minor charge dropped
A Miramar police officer accused of having sex with a 17-year-old girl accepted a plea deal Wednesday and will face 10 years of probation, court records show. He is forbidden from wearing a police uniform.
Jose Hernandez, 29, originally faced one count of sexual activity with a minor and one count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor after his arrest in Hialeah in June 2023. On Wednesday, he pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated child abuse instead, a steeper charge.
In addition to losing his license, he is required to enter a mentally disordered sexual offender treatment program and to not have any contact with the victim, according to the plea agreement. He can no longer enter any career that requires him to wear a uniform, including that of a police officer, and must give up his police certifications.
A 17-year-old girl had told police that she met Hernandez, who was 28 at the time, on the dating app Tinder around March of last year. She had displayed her age as 23, according to a probable cause affidavit.
They began messaging on the app and then texting, according to the affidavit. At one point, she sent him a voice note saying that she had lied about her age and she was actually about to turn 19.
They went on three dates, according to the affidavit. On the last date, they went to a hotel in Hialeah, where they had sex. The girl told detectives they never discussed her age and Hernandez never coerced her into having sex with him.
Afterwards, Hernandez stopped talking to her, she said. At one point, she told him she was pregnant, and he “got mad at her,” telling her it was impossible, according to the affidavit.
About a month later, a Miami Gardens police officer happened across the texts, according to the affidavit. Officers had taken the girl to a psychiatric facility after she called 911 while walking a dog. She had seen a garbage bag and thought a dead body was inside, according to the affidavit. When officers arrived they found her screaming and pointing at the bag, which was empty. She told them she was not taking her medication.
At the facility, the girl gave one of the officers her phone. He looked at her text messages to try to contact the last person she spoke to, according to the affidavit, then noticed that she had been texting someone he recognized as an officer in uniform. He read the text messages and, suspecting that the girl was a minor, asked her for her age.
The Miami Gardens officer then saw a picture of Hernandez in his Miramar police uniform. Detectives interviewed the girl, who told them about her sexual relationship with Hernandez.
A month later, Hernandez called her, she told detectives, telling her that he was in trouble and was going to lose his job, according to the affidavit, though he did not ask her not to cooperate with law enforcement. She hung up on him.
“After a full review of the evidence, the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office and Mr. Hernandez’s defense team were able to reach a fair and just resolution with reduced charges,” Hernandez’s defense attorney, Fallon Zirpoli, said in a statement emailed to the South Florida Sun Sentinel on Wednesday.
She said Hernandez agreed to plead guilty to aggravated child abuse, a steeper charge, in order to avoid a possible conviction on a charge that would require him to register as a sex offender.
Hernandez had been suspended without pay pending the outcome of the case, according to Miramar Police. Though his license is revoked, he still faces an internal affairs investigation that runs subsequent to the criminal case before the department determines if he will be fired, said spokeswoman Tania Ordaz, declining to comment further due to the active investigation.
“Regretfully, one of our officers has been arrested by the Hialeah Police Department on very serious charges,” Miramar Police Chief Delrish Moss said in a statement after the initial arrest. “… I want to express my deepest sympathies to the victim and all those impacted by these events. Our thoughts are with them, and we are committed to supporting them and ensuring that justice is served.”