Miami-Dade cop suspended, jailed on 19 counts of child porn. Victims as young as 8, cops say
Police investigating a Miami-Dade police officer for allegedly visiting child poronography sites say they found an additional eight videos on his cellphone showing children as young as eight years old having intercourse with adult men.
David Behney, 33, was booked into jail late Thursday night after a police raid of his home and is now facing 19 felony counts. His arrest came almost five months after police initially traced digital child pornography to his home, according to Behney’s arrest warrant.
Behney, a veteran cop in the county’s Hammocks District in West Kendall, was relieved of duty Thursday pending the outcome of the investigation.
In a prepared statement Thursday, Police Director George Perez said “children trust us to keep them safe and out of harm’s way.”
“Not only as law enforcement, but as a father, a crime against a child is intolerable and will never be accepted. It sickens me to learn that one of our law enforcement officers is involved in betraying that trust,” said the director.
Behney’s attorney Diego Weiner said though is client is facing very serious charges, “everyone in our system is considered innocent unless and until they are proven guilty.”
Behney remained jailed at the Turner Guilford Knight correctional center Friday and his bond has been set at $95,000.
Investigators said in the warrant that Behney and several others who exchanged the explicit material substituted the words child pornography with “Cheese Pizza.” The warrant claimed videos depicted the children masturbating, giving oral sex and being penetrated by adult men.
Behney couldn’t be reached and it wasn’t clear if he had hired an attorney to represent him. Steadman Stahl, president of the South Florida Police Benevolent Association, which represents Miami-Dade officers, said the union had not been contacted by him as of late Thursday.
Behney’s nine-page arrest warrant said police were initially flagged to Behney’s alleged actions by the messaging app Kik last November. They then were able to link the IP address to Behney’s home, the warrant said.
The warrant also says investigators found a text exchange from Behney in WhatsApp that contained three child porn videos and a message from Beheny saying he was “looking for more of the same material.”
Behney waived his Miranda rights, police said, and spoke to investigators. The case is being investigated by a Miami-Dade police unit dedicated to internet crimes against children, which is tied to the FBI.
This story was originally published April 7, 2022 at 5:24 PM.
