BY DAVID OVALLE AND MELHOR
MARIE LEONOR
A retired Miami police officer
who nicknamed himself “Batman” and downloaded hundreds of child-porn videos is
now accused of video-recording himself molesting a young girl, authorities say.
Juan Roman had been free on
bond on federal child-porn charges when detectives, while poring through his
computer files this week, found the disturbing video clips.
Roman, 57, was re-arrested and
booked into a Miami-Dade jail early Saturday, charged with a slew of state
counts, including lewd and lascivious molestation of a child.
According to court documents,
Roman apparently set up a hidden video camera inside his home bathroom, which
later captured him molesting a girl who is 7 years old.
He is also charged with video
voyeurism. A Miami-Dade judge on Saturday afternoon ordered him held in jail
without bond.
“The defendant is obviously
embarrassed by the allegations but he has served the community well for more
than four decades,” said his defense attorney, George Cholakis.
His arrest stunned and angered
former colleagues at the Miami Police Department, where he worked as a
detective and as a spotter aboard the department’s helicopter. Roman retired
about five years ago.
Late last month, federal
authorities arrested Roman and charged him with possession and distribution of
child pornography.
According to federal court
documents, cyber-crimes investigators in July pinpointed Roman’s computer as
having been used to share illegal sexual images of young girls and boys.
In late August, agents raided
Roman’s Biscayne Park home. After waiving his right to remain silent, the
former cop insisted that he only used the file-sharing software to download
music and had “not really seen child pornography,” according to the federal
complaint.
Investigators noticed another
odd detail: Roman sported a Batman logo tattooed on his arm, and his computer
hard drive was nicknamed the “Batcave.”
Photos on his laptop and hard
drive showed him wearing a cape, a mask and Batman underwear in various posed
shots, according to documents.
But most disturbingly,
investigators found over 500 video files “suggestive of child pornography” on Roman’s
laptop and hard drive.
It was on Thursday that
detectives, while exhaustively combing through his files, found the videos of
Roman allegedly molesting the young girl in the bathroom. Federal prosecutors
are now asking that a federal judge revoke his bond.
Miami-Dade Police’s special
victims unit arrested him on the state charges.
His arrest comes several weeks
after Miami-Dade police officers arrested one of their own on similar charges.
Longtime Miami-Dade Sgt. James
Edwards is accused of paying a 15-year-old boy with drugs and alcohol before
groping the teen and masturbating in front of him, authorities say. He is
charged with lewd and lascivious conduct and exhibition.
