New info on Nick Menocal's criminal family

Since there is a paywall on the Miami Herald articles, here are some excerpts:

"Prosecutors also claim Menocal boasted about having a sexual relationship with a Hialeah internal affairs detective who tipped him off about ongoing investigations into his conduct and that he tried to pressure a young police academy cadet into having an abortion after he got her pregnant, according to federal court records. Menocal was the cadet’s instructor."
"A spokesman for the Hialeah Police Department did not respond when asked if the department was aware of the allegation that Menocal was improperly receiving information from one of its internal affairs detectives while having a sexual relationship with her. The spokesman also would not reveal the detective’s name or say whether she had faced any investigation or discipline."

After recieving information from internal affairs "court documents accuse Menocal of threatening several alleged victims after assaulting them, telling one woman that he knew she had complained to the Hialeah detective with whom he was sleeping. He told the young woman that he was unstoppable."

"One of the alleged victims, Suzy Betancourt, died in November 2015 — five months after telling Hialeah internal affairs detectives that Menocal assaulted her. According to a police report, Betancourt died after jumping out of a moving car"

“You can’t kill a beast, you can’t knock me down,” Menocal said, according to the documents. “I’m a beast.”

Menocal then told her to ask to use the substation’s bathroom, which she did, and escorted her into the substation — something captured on exterior surveillance cameras, prosecutors say. Once inside, Menocal took her to an area that was out of view of the facility’s cameras. There, it is alleged, Menocal took off her handcuffs and made her perform oral sex — before putting the cuffs back on her wrists and telling her not to tell anyone about what had happened. He ignored her questions about why she was not being released and placed her in the backseat of a Hialeah police vehicle. Another officer then drove her to a hospital for a mental health evaluation.

The victim was identified thanks to the surveillance footage. Other footage showed Menocal taking a total of 11 women into the substation in a one-month period between May and June 2015, according to the government.

“All of these incidents occurred on the weekend or after 5:00 p.m.,” prosecutors wrote in court documents. “The video evidence then shows the defendant bringing each of these women into closed rooms in the substation that were not covered by the surveillance system.”

"Hialeah Police Chief Sergio Velázquez did not fire Menocal until the FBI arrested him in late 2019 — four years after the victims lodged their complaints. Menocal kept his gun and badge for much of that time, even receiving a raise.
Velázquez has said he could not discipline Menocal because of departmental policies, although policing experts and former chiefs from other South Florida departments told the Miami Herald that wasn’t true.

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/loc...249347470.html

Six women and girls, among them a 14 year old, are now known to have accused the former cop of sexual assault.