FBI arrests Hialeah cop accused of sexual assault by four women and girls
FBI 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.
In a news release, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Miami said Menocal had directed the minor to remove her clothing “for his own sexual gratification.” Prosecutors said Menocal exposed himself to the second victim and “grabbed” her. He was also on duty at the time.
Later in the day, Hialeah Police Chief Sergio Velázquez called a news conference to announce that Menocal would be “terminated from employment with the Hialeah Police Department immediately.”
Maley Dacosta, the minor referenced in the charges, is now 22. She sued Menocal and the city and told the Miami Herald Friday that she felt vindicated by his arrest.
“I am relieved that they got him before he was able to bite again,” said Dacosta, who was 17 when Menocal allegedly detained her and demanded sex. “That uniform he wears owes him no respect. ... Justice is being served.”
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.
Michael Grieco, Menocal’s defense attorney, told the Herald in a text: “It’s Day 1. I am simply happy we were able to swiftly secure his release today. He still sits not guilty in the eyes of the law and we look forward to learning more about the government’s case in the upcoming weeks.”
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.
Eddie Rodriguez, a spokesman for Hialeah police, said in a brief statement that the department “has been working hand-in-hand and in full cooperation with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which has led to [Menocal’s] arrest.”
In 2015, four women and girls accused Menocal of sexual abuse, including a teenage girl who said he forced her to perform oral sex on him when she was 14 years old. “He was a cop and I didn’t want to get in any trouble,” the sobbing girl told a Hialeah internal affairs investigator during an interview.
Dacosta and another alleged victim said Menocal pressured them for sex in separate incidents. A fourth woman said he handcuffed her and sexually assaulted her while masturbating in his police truck, according to hundreds of pages of law enforcement public records obtained by the Herald. The woman, Suzy Betancourt, died months after telling police that Menocal had assaulted her. Miami-Dade Police Department detectives concluded she jumped out of a moving car while intoxicated.
Brion Ross and Anthony Narula, attorneys representing Betancourt’s family, said their clients welcomed the arrest.
“This is the first step in the healing process for our client’s family, who tragically lost the life of their daughter,” they said in a statement. “This family wants nothing but justice for their daughter and the other young women who were affected. The family hopes that the policing community will work to [address] this problem and that the days of two sets of justice are over, and that the delayed justice by the Miami-Dade state attorney’s failure to fully investigate this case has come to an end.”
Hialeah Mayor Carlos Hernández, who appointed Velázquez as chief in 2012, did not respond to a request for comment.
Menocal had been relieved of duty in 2015 while Hialeah’s internal affairs investigators probed the allegations and the state attorney’s office considered filing charges. IA detectives discovered that Menocal had brought eight other women into the station without filing reports, a violation of departmental policy.
Ultimately, state prosecutors declined to bring charges, saying the victims would not be reliable witnesses in court and that there was no corroborating evidence. But even before prosecutors formally declined to file any charges, Velázquez reinstated Menocal as a patrol officer. He was also given a raise.
Menocal was relieved of duty again earlier this year and assigned desk work while the FBI was conducting its investigation. Velázquez said new information came to light but would not specify what.
Maley Dacosta’s mother, Barbara Dacosta, told Miami Herald news partner WFOR-CBS4 that she was “very happy” Menocal had been arrested for the “terrible” thing he did to her daughter.
“He used his uniform to take advantage of these girls,” she said. “Because of his arrest, he can’t be on the streets and do this to any other girls.”
Both the state attorney’s office and Velázquez defended their actions.
At a late afternoon news conference at Hialeah police headquarters, Velázquez said he was “proud” of the investigation he said was done jointly by the FBI and his department’s internal affairs unit.
“There have been allegations made by certain media outlets claiming a cover-up by myself for this police officer,” Velázquez said. “As evidenced with this arrest, that’s all false allegations. This police department has no tolerance for improper behavior. We hold our members accountable for their actions.”
While the U.S. Attorney’s Office acknowledged the “efforts” of Hialeah police in the investigation, Velázquez took no questions and did not respond when asked how his officers had contributed.
He did, however, note Menocal’s light disciplinary record before the sexual assault allegations, saying the sergeant had received “numerous awards and commendations for his actions as a police officer.”
The state attorney’s office issued its own statement, which read in part: “This was a very challenging fact scenario when we first reviewed it. At the time, we did not have sufficient evidence to ethically file state sexual assault charges. However, we did not give up on this matter. Recognizing that Federal Civil Rights charges might be viable, we referred this matter to the DOJ [Department of Justice] for further investigation in 2016.”
Menocal comes from an influential law enforcement family in Miami-Dade County. He and his father, Jesús Menocal Sr., run a local tactical firearms training center. As a condition of his bond, Menocal is not allowed to work at the center.
This story was originally published December 13, 2019 at 10:36 AM.
