|
 |
 |
 |
|
 | ||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
| ||||
ALFONSO CHARDY and JAY WEAVER, Miami Herald
An immigration agent driving a Jamaican woman from a Miami-Dade detention center to one in Broward took her to his home instead and raped her, according to federal criminal charges filed late Friday.
A criminal complaint filed in Miami federal court alleges that Wilfredo Vazquez, 35, a U.S. Immigration and Cus-toms Enforcement agent, sexually assaulted the 39-year-old Jamaican mother of two on the afternoon of Sept. 21 at his Tamarac home.
The woman said she was "afraid" of Vazquez, according to the three-count criminal complaint. She "emphasized that Vazquez was wearing his firearm at all times, and she did not know what he was capable of doing to her."
Federal authorities are poring over computer records and other documents that track Vazquez's involvement in previous detainee transfers to see if other women were attacked but feared coming forward.
Vazquez, who worked for the agency for less than a year as an immigration enforcement agent, was picked up Fri-day evening in Tampa, where he had been on rotation with an unidentified military reserve unit. He is scheduled to make his first appearance in Tampa federal court Monday.
Cheryl Little, executive director of Miami-based Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center, which represents the victim, said the woman was released from immigration detention Nov. 1.
"I was scared for my life," the woman said in a telephone interview before being released. "He had a gun. He's a big man, and I was in his custody. I expected him to protect me, not to take advantage of me."
Little said the woman cried with relief when told Friday night about the arrest.
"It was such an emotional moment when I told her," Little said.
Vazquez denied several times to investigators that the incident happened or that he stopped other than to get gas, according to an affidavit by Homeland Security agent David Nieland.
But records from Florida's Turnpike SunPass electronic toll system showed Vazquez's official vehicle left the highway at a Commercial Boulevard ramp near his home, the affidavit said, and the woman described his home and neighborhood to investigators.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement issued a statement late Friday saying Vazquez was fired "shortly after the allegation was lodged against him."
"ICE takes employee misconduct very seriously," the statement said. "As such, Wilfredo Vazquez was arrested Fri-day following a thorough criminal investigation by the ICE Office of Professional Responsibility, the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General and the Broward County Sheriff's Office."
The Jamaican woman was being processed at Krome detention center for transfer to Pompano Beach after being sentenced to time served in connection with a false claim to U.S. citizenship. Immigration officials planned to put her in deportation proceedings after having lived in in the United States for 12 years. She has a 20-year-old daughter and a young son.
She was at Krome's intake room when Vazquez noticed her among a crowd of male detainees, according to a statement she gave to her attorneys.
In that statement, the woman said the officer told intake officials he would drive her to the Pompano Beach facility. Then he turned to the woman and said: "I'll rescue you, so you don't have to wait for them to process all the men."
Before putting her in the back of a van, Vazquez took the handcuffs off the woman and allegedly said: "I don't cuff females."
Inside his home he asked her to "take off those federal clothes."
After about 15 minutes, the agent ordered her to get dressed and walk to the van.
After arriving at the Broward facility, another Jamaican female detainee asked why she was crying. The woman shared what happened. The next day, the other detainee reported the conversation to facility officials, who took the victim to the BSO and a treatment center.
