A fifth woman is accusing an ex-Hialeah cop of sexual assault. The FBI is investigating
A new alleged victim is accusing recently fired Hialeah Police Department Sgt. Jesús Menocal Jr. of sexual assault, becoming at least the fifth woman to make such a complaint, the Miami Herald has learned.
The woman approached Hialeah police after Menocal was arrested by the FBI on Dec. 13, two sources familiar with the case told the Miami Herald. She said Menocal assaulted her several years ago when she was roughly 18 and is said to have an audio recording of the encounter, according to the sources. Hialeah police passed her information on to the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office and the FBI. Four women have previously accused Menocal of sexual assault, including two minors.
“The FBI has asked to take the lead on the new complaint,” said Ed Griffith, a spokesman for the state attorney’s office. “Since they already have an indictment pending that is similar in nature to the new complaint, we agreed to their request. We have offered the FBI our assistance if they request it.”
When the Herald asked the city of Hialeah for records relating to any new victims, the city clerk’s office responded that “the case is an open/active investigation. ... We cannot release any document until the case is closed.”
A spokesman for Hialeah police did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Michael Grieco, Menocal’s defense attorney, could not be reached for comment. The FBI declined to comment.
Menocal was indicted in federal court last month on charges that he violated the civil rights of two women by detaining them and subjecting them to “non-consensual sexual encounters ... while he was acting in his official capacity as a police officer” in 2015. He has pleaded not guilty. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Miami, which is handling the case, said in a court filing that it has gathered 29,000 pages of documents and records, as well as cellphone and hard drive data.
Although Hialeah Police Chief Sergio Velázquez fired Menocal after his arrest, the allegations against the patrol sergeant first surfaced in 2015, when four women and girls accused him of sexual assault. State prosecutors declined to charge him, saying there wasn’t enough evidence and that the alleged victims lacked credibility. One of the women died months after giving evidence against Menocal when she tumbled out of a moving automobile. The two women cited in the federal indictment were among the four alleged victims who accused him of misconduct in 2015.
Additionally, Menocal sometimes brought young women to the police station, where they would accompany him to a private room without cameras, according to surveillance video and other records. The meetings were not documented, a violation of police protocols, a Hialeah police internal affairs investigation found.
A Herald investigation published the month before Menocal’s arrest raised questions about how Velázquez handled the internal investigation into the accusations. The Herald found that the chief brought Menocal back to active duty even before state prosecutors made their decision to decline to charge him. Velázquez also returned him to the SWAT team and approved him for a merit raise, even as he later sustained an internal affairs complaint, Hialeah police records showed.
The resulting scandal has led to criticism of Velázquez and his boss, Hialeah Mayor Carlos Hernández.
After the Herald published its initial story, Velázquez defended his department, saying no “cover-up” took place.
And at a Tuesday city council meeting, Hernández responded by calling the Herald “racist” and “anti-Cuban.”
Aminda Marqués González, the Herald’s executive editor, president and publisher, said the mayor’s complaint appeared to be “an attempt to divert attention from the city’s lack of accountability.”
