MARGATE, Fla. – A man, then 21, met a 14-year-old girl at a Pompano Beach church and the two would later enter into a relationship, authorities said. Newly-public court documents say that the man would then rape her in the parking lot of another church.
Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested Deninesson Rivaldo Vernitus, 22, of Deerfield Beach, on three child sexual battery charges on Monday, according to the agency’s jail records.
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According to court documents made public on Thursday, Vernitus raped the girl in Margate in April.
The two had met at the unnamed Pompano Beach church “earlier in the year,” an arrest warrant states. Police said he had told her he was 18.
Margate Police Department Detective Megan Britt wrote that Vernitus and the girl had met on April 27 to “hang out and get snacks.”
Police said he would eventually take her to the parking lot of the First Christian Church, located at 1107 NW 66th Ave., and sexually assault her in the back of his vehicle.
The warrant states that Vernitus threatened to “expose her to his friends” if she did not perform a sex act on her and raped her as she told him to stop.
Authorities said the victim discovered blood on her dress when she got home. The warrant states that when she told her mother what happened, her mother told her “she would keep it a secret.”
“(The victim) believes her mother is protecting Vernitus because she knows his family,” Britt wrote.
The victim’s sister, however, took action after eventually being told what happened, according to police. The warrant states she hatched a plan to lure Vernitus to their home on June 20 so they could call police.
Vernitus could be heard during voice messages during a chat exchange saying in Haitian Creole that “what happened between the both of them was consensual and also says he found out after that (the victim) wasn’t old enough,” police said.
The next day, unidentified family members of the girl confronted Vernitus at his home on Northeast 44th Street in Deerfield Beach, authorities said.
“Vernitus tackled (redacted), knocking her down, and ran off,” Britt wrote. “Vernitus picked up (redacted) phone (mistakenly) and left his phone on the ground outside behind (the home). (Redacted) picked his phone up and provided it to police.”
Someone followed Vernitus to a food store, where deputies made contact with him. He told a Creole-speaking deputy that two unknown females had chased him down, ran him over with a vehicle and took his phone, but police said there was no evidence of a robbery.
At one point, a family member said she heard a conversation between Vernitus and his victim in which he told her, “I knew you would come back for more,” the warrant states.
On July 16, two people contacted Margate police to inform them that Vernitus was no longer living at his Deerfield Beach home, was hiding with family members and expressed concerns that he was trying to flee the country, the warrant states.
Police said they were told that Vernitus, a Haitian national believed to be in the United States illegally, had tried to leave the country four days prior.
Vernitus, however, was not able to leave the country before authorities arrested him Monday.
He’s being held without bond at BSO’s Paul Rein Detention Facility on three counts of sexual battery of a minor 12 to 17 years of age as well as an immigration hold.
Court records show Broward Judge Michael Rothschild is overseeing the case.