Florida police captain ‘solicited prostitution and engaged in sex act at a massage parlor while ON DUTY during undercover sting operation’
- Fort Myers Police Captain Jay Rodriguez, 46, charged with soliciting prostitution, official misconduct and perjury
- Rodriguez is accused of engaging in sex act with masseuse during a March 2013 undercover operation at a Fort Myers massage parlor
- He then allegedly lied about his actions, and later perjured himself by stating under oath he had never had sex while on duty
- Sex act was allegedly caught on video, which was turned over to city officials
Fort Myers Police Captain Jay Rodriguez, 46, has been charged with soliciting prostitution, official misconduct and perjury stemming with a 2013 massage parlor sting operation
A Fort Myers, Florida, police captain has been arrested on charges of soliciting prostitution, official misconduct and perjury stemming from a massage parlor bust that took place more than six years ago.
Capt Jay Rodriguez, 46, was booked into the Lee County Jail on Tuesday morning and released by lunch time after posting $4,000 bond.
Rodriguez’s arrest came seven months after the Florida Department of Law Enforcement launched an independent investigation into the captain’s conduct during a 2013 undercover operation.
A press release from the FDLE states that the agency’s probe has found that Rodriguez ‘solicited and engaged in prostitution with a female massage therapist while on duty and acting in an undercover capacity’ during a sting operation in Fort Myers on March 14, 2013.
The high-ranking police officer then allegedly wrote a falsified account of what happened during the bust, which led to the arrests of two women at the unnamed massage parlor.
Rodriguez also is accused of perjuring himself when he made what the FDLE described as a false statement under oath during an internal affairs investigation in January 2019, claiming that he had never engaged in sex while on duty.
Rodriguez, who has been on the force since 1998, is accused of engaging in a sex act with a masseuse while on duty, and then lying about it
According to reporting by Fort Myers News-Press, the investigation was sparked by a complaint filed in December 2018 by a former police officer who claimed that Rodriguez had engaged in a sex act during the sting, and that it was caught on video.
The recording was turned over the City of Fort Myers Human Resources, and the News-Press also obtained a copy of it.
The footage purports to show Rodriguez in the nude inside the massage parlor and a woman wearing only underwear.
Fort Myers Police Chief Derrick Diggs said in a Facebook post addressing the captain’s arrest that he immediately placed Rodriguez on unpaid administrative leave pending the outcome of the case.
The 46-year-old has been on the force since 1998 in various capacities.
‘Although the incident occurred 3 years prior to my arrival, I take any allegations of misconduct by our officers seriously,’ the chief stated. ‘His actions should in no way reflect on the character and integrity of this organization or the men and women who tirelessly work every day to protect the good people of Ft Myers.’