Florida cop sent explicit text messages to 15-year-old boy, federal complaint says
.jpg "A Sewall’s Point police officer was arrested on a charge of attempting to produce child porn of a 15-year-old boy..")
A police officer in Florida is facing a federal charge of attempting to produce pornography of a minor after an agent says he exchanged explicit messages with a 15-year-old boy and tried to lure him to a nude beach.
Juan Antonio Garcia, a 30-year-old officer for Sewall’s Point Police Department in Martin County, will have a detention hearing Friday in federal magistrate court in West Palm Beach. His arraignment is set for Dec. 17.
If convicted, Garcia could face between 15 years and 30 years in federal prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Court documents show that the Stuart native knew the teen victim for about five years before the incident.
On Nov. 22, the father of the victim went to the Martin County Sheriff’s Office to report sexually explicit messages he found in his son’s phone, according to the complaint, which was unsealed Dec. 3. Garcia asked the teen to send him video of himself masturbating after providing him with condoms, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release.
The teen’s father allowed an undercover officer to take over the conversation with Garcia. That’s when Garcia unknowingly made plans with the undercover officer to meet at a local park for oral sex, according to the allegations. Upon showing up, he was arrested by deputies on charges of traveling to meet a minor and using a computer to solicit a minor.
Sewall’s Point Police Department placed Garcia on administrative leave without pay, pending investigation, according to the U.S Attorney’s Office.
After his arrest, Garcia admitted to knowing the boy was 15 years old and that he asked the teen to send him sexually explicit videos and pictures, according to the complaint. He allowed law enforcement officers to look in his phone.
According to the agent who wrote the complaint, Garcia’s phone was “not made in the United States” and so he “traveled in interstate commerce.”
This story was originally published December 7, 2021 at 7:00 AM.
