Lakeland, Florida -- Another sex scandal at the Lakeland
Police Department, and this time, the officer involved faces criminal charges.
Officer Julio Pagan, 31, was arrested today on two counts of
sexual battery and one count of stalking.
"There are simply no words to describe my shock, my
outrage, my disgust about this," said Chief Lisa Womack.
Chief Womack says the investigation dates
back to a time right in the middle of the department's highly publicized
sex scandal.
Investigators say Officer Pagan responded to a July 4th call
near a trailer park and that's where he first met the alleged victim.
Six weeks later, during another call, the woman says
Pagan coerced her to have sex with him in her bathroom while he was still
armed, in uniform, and on duty.
Asked if this will only promote talk of persistent culture
problems now under her command as well at Lakeland P.D., Chief Womack was
clearly frustrated.
"This is not a departmental issue," she said
pausing for moment, "You want to know how I feel about it? Fed up,"
she said.
The alleged victim says three weeks later, Pagan, again
on-duty, was back, asking her for a "quickie" accoridng to the polcie
report.
Surveillance video shows Pagan's cruiser pulling up
to a nearby Circle K store, where images, say detectives, show the woman buys
alcohol before both return to her house.
Investigators say Pagan then came back a second time on that
same date, August 29th, but that the woman made an excuse to fend off his
advances and called police to complain about Pagan's visits.
However the dispatcher, idnetified as Christinia Jordan, now
on administrative leave, never sent an officer.
"I have no valid explanation as to at this point why
that that did not occur," said Chief Womack. An investigation into the
matter was "about 90%" complete, she said.
The victim, who never had a police officer respond, got
another uninvited visit from Pagan about three weeks later.
Relatives called to complain yet again, and this
time Lakeland sent an investigator.
Austin Garcia, a neighbor, says a short time later, the
trailer park area was visited by multiiple officers.
"I did see a couple of squad cars go over there and
stuff, like about 5 or 6 of them," he said, "They stayed there about
an hour or two and left."
Chief Womack says she knows the public is
already commenting about how this may yet again be an example of
the "culture" within Lakeland P.D., but she took issue with that
assertion.
This was not a departmental culture issue, she said
- it's a crime.
Pagan, she said, will likely be formally
fired over the next couple of days.
He faces life in prison if convicted.