JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Images from a former Jacksonville sheriff’s officer’s work cellphone can be used at his underage sex trial to argue he had “sexual interest in children,” a federal judge has decided.
Josue Garriga could face a minimum 10-year prison sentence if he’s convicted this month of coercing and enticing a 17-year-old girl into sexual activity.
His attorney tried Tuesday to keep a prosecutor from using the images, which don’t show that girl or any sex or nudity, arguing in a hearing that they don’t prove anything about the case.
But U.S. District Judge Marcia Morales Howard said an appeals court ruling on a similar case in 2013 convinced her to let Assistant U.S. Attorney Laura Cofer Taylor present images the prosecutor previously said reflect Garriga’s “consumption of sexually suggestive media depicting female children.”
Garriga is accused of pursuing the 17-year-old, who he knew from church, exchanging messages with her for months over Instagram and WhatsApp.
A criminal complaint filed before Garriga was indicted said the girl told an investigator Garriga pressured her for sex and that the two had sent nude photos to one another.
But Taylor told the judge Garriga’s WhatsApp account was set to delete messages after 24 hours, eliminating lots of material she might have used to prove her case.
Without those messages, the prosecutor plans to use images from Garriga’s work phone to show an interest in young girls to paint a fuller picture of him for jurors. Garriga resigned from the Sheriff's Office after being arrested, the agency said in April.
Defense attorney M. Alan Ceballos said the images — which are under seal in court records — seem to show girls ages 10 to 12, not 17, and that there’s no way to show that the images weren’t part of some police investigation Garriga worked. Taylor said she could bring a police witness to debunk that defense.
Howard said jurors should be told that having non-sexual photos of young girls isn’t illegal and that Taylor shouldn’t describe the pictures as “child erotica,” a phrase the prosecutor used in a court filing.
But the judge said the 2013 ruling from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, the court that reviews appeals from cases in Florida, pointed the way for her to rule when another man charged with trying to entice a minor into sex complained about prosecutors telling jurors the man had 85 suggestive photos of young-looking girls or women.
In that case, the appeals court said “the suggestive photos … are indicative of a sexual interest in young girls, which makes it more probable” the defendant intended to entice a girl.
Howard has scheduled Garriga’s trial to begin with jury selection starting July 23. A state-level felony case against Garriga is still pending in Clay County.
This story was first published by The Florida Times-Union