Authorities arrested and charges were made against a Bartow police officer who was said to have been assaulting four teenage girls s*xually.
Mark Anthony Fernandez, 24, is accused of s*xual contact with four minors: two girls and two women under 18 years old and two girls and a girl under 17 years old.
He is accused of sharing at least one video of one of the teens having a s*xual act on one of the 18-year-olds wearing a Bartow police jacket while Fernandez watched. He did this while he was at work and using Snapchat. The officers said that the girls were in different stages of undress.
Investigators say that he gave the victims alcohol and pot gummies at parties and did other s*xual things with them. Fernandez is accused of holding the 16-year-old girl down after he went into her bedroom at his home in Lake Wales and began to touch and choke her.
The investigation was given to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office by the Bartow Police Department because it was not their job to handle it.
Sherriff Grady Judd says that Fernandez met one of the girls on social media and was then put in touch with the others.
Fernandez is on paid administrative leave while police look into why he was detained.
Stephen Walker, the Deputy Chief of Police for the Bartow Police Department, said, “It’s very disappointing.” “We make sure we hire qualified people by doing thorough background checks and psychological screenings.” It’s important to remember, though, that these methods aren’t perfect and that people can change.
For the first time, Fernandez worked for the Bartow Police Department in September 2020. He went to work for the sheriff’s office in October 2021 and then returned to the police force in December 2022.
Judge Grady Judd said, “This person is bad.” “He tricked the system to get in, but then he acted like a fool, which is good in my book. He got arrested.” Stupid enough to do it, even more stupid to record it and even more stupid to show it to his coworkers, who told him to “time out.” They work for a living. Therefore you play silly games and win silly prizes.
Fernandez was arrested at the Polk County Jail on multiple charges, including two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, battery by strangulation, illegal use of a two-way communication device, four counts of providing alcohol to a person under 21 years of age, and promotion of a juvenile in a s*xual performance.
Couple Arrested after a Mother of 4 Caught Them Naked and Doing Inappropriate Acts at Florida Beach
