FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – A former Miramar police captain convicted of forcing a teenage girl to strip during a traffic stop was sentenced to four years in prison on Friday.
A Broward County Circuit Court judge also sentenced Juan De Los Rios to five years of sexual offender probation.
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According to testimony, De Los Rios approached the girl and her boyfriend in the parking lot of the Fountains shopping plaza in Jan. 2012. De Los Rios approached the parked car where she and her boyfriend were sitting in the back seat. He allegedly asked: "Well, are you having sex?"
When the pair said they were not having sex, De Los Rios told her to pull down her pants so she could "prove it," according to police documents.
"He asked me to pull down my pants. And my underwear. And to turn and face him toward the window. And I said, 'why?' And he didn't believe we weren't having sex so he wanted to see if anything was coming out. I said, 'coming out of where?' And he said my genital area. He wanted to check," the teen testified.
Months later, in June, De Los Rios was arrested and charged with lewd and lascivious conduct.
Chief Ray Black of the Miramar Police Department issued the following statement:
"Captain De Los Rios' conduct that led to his arrest and conviction is abhorrent and certainly not representative of the dedicated men and women of the Miramar Police Department.
I want to extend my deepest sympathies to the victim and those who were affected by this unfortunate incident. No member of the department is above the law and any report of such officer abuse of authority will be thoroughly investigated and if wrongdoing is found, appropriate measures will be taken."