Miramar cop accused of sex with minor who admits lying about age in person, on Tinder
A Miramar police officer was arrested this week and charged with having sex with a minor who admitted to police that she misled the cop and told him she was 23.
Hialeah police say Jose Hernandez, 28, met the unnamed teen on Tinder in March and that police only discovered the relationship accidentally when the 17-year-old was having an apparent breakdown over what she believed was a dead body she discovered in a garbage bag on a sidewalk.
There was no body in the bag, according to Hernandez’s arrest warrant, and the girl admitted to officers that she had not take her medication that day.
She was “dirty, frantic and unkempt,” police wrote.
Hernandez, a Miramar police officer for three years, was charged with single counts of having sex with a minor and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Miramar Police Chief Delrish Moss said the officer has been suspended without pay pending developments in the case.
“It’s always unfortunate in any of these situations,” Moss said. “You’ve got victims, her family, his family and people who work with him who are obviously hurting. It’s just sad and unfortunate.”
Brent Steffan, president of Miramar’s Fraternal Order of Police, said the union has no information on the case and he didn’t know if Hernandez had hired outside counsel.
According to the officer’s eight-page arrest warrant issued Tuesday, he met the teen on Tinder in March and they had sex at least three times in Hialeah and Fort Lauderdale. The teen’s Tinder biography said she was 23.
Then on April 13, police said, the teen who is now an adult, was walking her dog in Miami Gardens when she came across a garbage bag, became frantic and called 911.
“They saw the victim screaming erratically and pointing at the garbage bag,” an officer wrote.
Police said when they asked for personal information, she handed them her cellphone. Scrolling through it, they said they discovered texts between her and Hernandez, including one in which she accused him of getting her pregnant, the warrant says.
Under questioning, police said, the teen admitted to misleading Hernandez about her age in person and on Tinder and said they had sex at least three times. She also told police that Hernandez called her on May 23, asked if she lied to him about her age and told her he was in trouble and going to lose his job.
“The victim added that she was not forced, threatened, or coerced into having sexual intercourse with the subject. The victim said she never disclosed she was 17,” police wrote in the warrant.
Hernandez is the second South Florida police officer to be arrested this week.
Aventura Police Officer David Delgado, 29, was arrested Wednesday by Broward sheriff’s deputies on two kidnapping counts, two counts of aggravated assault, two counts of committing the crimes with a weapon and battery. His arrest stems from a May 20 incident in which Delgado is alleged to have illegally stopped and detained two people for four minutes in Broward County.
This story was originally published June 23, 2023 at 3:01 PM.
