The South Florida cop who used his badge to intimidate women and girls into performing sex acts on him over several years pleaded guilty to three misdemeanors Friday after accepting a plea deal that will spare him a lifetime in prison.
Former Hialeah police officer Jesus “Jesse” Menocal is now facing a maximum three years in prison. He will be sentenced next month.
The 34-year-old man who comes from a family of cops will also not have to register as a sex offender nor forfeit his right to carry a gun as he would have under the original felony charges which included kidnapping.
That means he will be able to continue working as a firearms instructor at his family’s company, Menocal International Training – even though he is no longer allowed to work as a police officer, according to the Miami Herald.
Menocal pleaded guilty to depriving women of their civil rights under color of law by sexually abusing them, according to the press released issued by the U.S. Department of Justice. He also admitted to sexually assaulting four women during Friday’s hearing.
At the change of plea hearing held today before U.S. District Judge Kathleen M. Williams, Menocal admitted that he kissed a woman and caused her to touch his exposed penis; had a second woman, who was in psychiatric crisis, perform oral sex on him; and coerced a third woman, who was walking alone at night, into submitting to oral and vaginal sex. While not directly related to the offenses to which he pleaded guilty, Menocal also admitted to bringing a fourth female into a Hialeah Police Department building and ordering her to remove her shorts and underwear, causing her to expose her buttocks to him. Menocal admitted that he was on-duty and in uniform during all of these acts, abusing his official authority.
But the press release does not mention it, one of his victims was a 14-year-old girl whom he forced to perform oral sex on him and another was a 17 years old, the “fourth female” in the above description.
The press release also does not mention that one of his alleged victims, a 30-year-old woman named Suzie Betancourt, who had reported him to internal affairs in November 2015 for sexually assaulting her, died a mysterious death after claiming he had threatened to kill her if she ever dared report him.
Betancourt died five months after filing her complaint when she fell out of a moving car, an incident ruled an accident but her family believes there is more to the story.
But Menocal escaped accountability for years because he was protected by his department who even gave him a raise after several women had accused him of sexually assaulting them.
He was also protected by the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office as well who refused to prosecute him after only interviewing one of his four alleged victims.
It was not until the FBI arrested him at the Hialeah Police Department in December 2019 that he began facing accountability.
Prior to that, he had bragged that he had sex with a female internal affairs detective in exchange for protecting him from the rape allegations.
“You can’t kill a beast, you can’t knock me down,” Menocal said, according to the documents obtained by the Miami Herald. “I’m a beast.”
Menocal, who is out on bond, will be sentenced May 12.
Cop Charged with Rape Bragged he was Protected by IA Cop he was Sleeping with
We had a deputy here in Lyon County Iowa who screwing around with a 15 year old girl a few years ago and never spent a minute in jail. He was convicted of lesser charges but his time on the sex crimes list is only 10 years long then expunged. Never heard of that ever except this case of preferential treatment.