By Justin Finch
A Miami Police officer was arrested Wednesday on charges of armed sexual battery by a law enforcement officer and armed kidnapping, authorities said.
Luis Hernandez, 27, a seven-year member of the police department, was arrested by internal affairs detectives after DNA evidence backed up a woman’s claims he kidnapped and sexually battered her in November 2011, police said.
“The findings were enough to have a Miami-Dade County judge sign an arrest warrant and charge Officer Luis Hernandez with sexual battery by a law enforcement officer and armed kidnapping,” Miami Police spokeswoman Officer Kenia Reyes said.
The charges stem from an early morning alleged attack by Hernandez on Nov. 26, 2011. That day, he was called in to relieve an officer going off-duty by transporting a 44-year-old woman to to the Miami-Dade County Jail. She had just been arrested after an earlier bar fight, police said. ‘I’m going to help you’
Hernandez picked up the victim from a colleague at police headquarters just after one o’clock that morning. Soon after, she said, he drove her to a parking lot off the 2500 block of Northwest 2nd Avenue. She recalled that Hernandez told her, “I’m going to help you,” police said.
The victim told police internal affairs investigators that Hernandez gave her some gauze and told her to clean up her face. With her shirt torn from the fight hours earlier, she recalled Hernandez poured a liquid onto a scratch on her breast. Then, she said, Hernandez lifted her shirt, and began fondling her.