That’s what the investigation indicates so far. I have to admit at first I was extremely skeptical of the charges being leveled against Deputy Jonathan Bleiweiss by several illegal aliens, thinking that this could have been a case of some angry arrestees making up some charges against what by all accounts is an openly gay officer. From The Sun-Sentinel:
“He’s an open target now, especially as a law enforcement officer, and as an openly gay deputy,” said Eric Schwartzreich.””Where were all these people before? You have to be suspicious of their motivations and biases. You have a good, tough officer, and naturally people are not going to like him.”
[…]
Bleiweiss, 29, is accused of intimidating at least eight illegal immigrants he picked up on traffic stops, including a teen, into performing sexual acts while he was on duty in Oakland Park. He faces 14 criminal charges.
Broward Sheriff’s Office officials said Wednesday they are considering more charges against Bleiweiss. Investigators ask that other people come forward if they have information about Bleiweiss.
[…]
The seven-year veteran deputy is jailed without bail and in protective custody. His attorney said Wednesday he plans to seek a new bail hearing.
Reached at his home in Ashland, Oregon, Rick Bleiweiss, said he has spoken to his son regularly since his arrest.
“He is absolutely innocent,” Bleiweiss said. He declined to comment further.
The case against Bleiweiss will depend heavily on the cooperation of those who have accused him. That might prove difficult to obtain. South Florida immigration attorneys say illegal immigrants who are victims in criminal cases might be wary of testifying in court for various reasons, including concern they will be arrested or deported.
“Some cooperate and some have shied away,” said Jeffrey Brauwerman, a former immigration judge who practices immigration law in Plantation. “Cases do fall apart when witnesses are unavailable.”
Miami immigration attorney Ira Kurzban said authorities might be able to persuade immigrants to testify by providing them visas under a law that protects crime victims. Such visas, good for several years, are available to those who provide court testimony and meet other requirements.
Seems to me there is a powerful motive for the illegals to lie. Steve Rothaus reports on his Miami Herald blog that even after these charges came to light Deputy Bleiweiss was allowed to stay on the job meaning that clearly the people making the charges have some credibility issues. After reading the arrest affidavit (.pdf) I almost had my original skepticism re-inforced except for the fact that investigators found a couple of irregularities that prove that at least something was going on with the Deputy and these men.
1) It was proven Bleiweiss sent provocative text messages to one of the men, who claimed the officer forced him into a “relationship” with him.
2) Several other men who claimed Deputy Bleiweiss forced them to give him their cell numbers (after molesting them) also were found to have received calls Bleiweiss.
3) Most damning of all was the fact that while Deputy Bleiweiss never officially recorded any of the stops in which he was said to have raped the victims, his unofficial records of his warrant (?) searches on D.A.V.I.D. and T.A.R. corroborate the victims stories.
An out officer working with populations that are less than tolerant of gays can run into problems with false allegations being made. At the same time a ghettoized population like illegals is ripe for exploitation, which is the point of multiculturalism in the first place, to create sub-classes of Americans that can be herded by nature of their separation from the mainstream. While I can’t say for sure that Deputy Bleiwiess “raped” anyone, it does seem like he exploited his position of authority amongst a very vulnerable population.
Rob,
I was a little skeptical too at first until I read the arrest affidavit. This officer was quoted to have said the same exact thing during several different sexual encounters- “quiero tu leche” or I want your milk.
Perhaps this cop was replaying the same fantasy over and over again. Also, another blogger quoted some homeless guys to say that Bleiweiss would harrass and bully them, to the point of stealing their blankets and pillows or force them to destroy their food.
These combined descriptions paint a picture of a person who has underwent some pretty severe trauma in his past and he continues to act out his own sexual traumas against the weakest of the population he was sworn to protect.
It also struck me as suspicious how the article’s author avoided the words “gay” when describing the cop and “rape” as the description of the crime, which, if this story is true, those adjectives sure would fit.
I agree. I think that the gay community does an awful job policing this sort of “gay” who is really as you said acting out some trauma in their pasts. Avoiding the terms will only muddy the waters and make law abiding gays look like their supporting his degeneracy.
The bullying homeless people paints a picture of a man who suffered some sort of abuse and is lashing out at others who are as weak as he was when he was victimized. Not excusing him at all, but it’s pretty clear what is going on in his head.
I don’t care if this deputy is straight, gay, or somewhere in between. What matters is that he’s a predator who deliberately sought out a vulnerable demographic to prey upon, just as pedophiles seek victims with as few defenses as possible. Clearly the Broward Sheriff’s Office needs to do a much better job of identifying employees likely to abuse their authority in such vile and degenerate ways.
Jenn,
I completely agree that the Broward County Sheriff’s office needs to do a better job identifying employees like this. But then you dismiss one key element of it, which was the fact that he was gay. Many gays have experienced abuse at the hands of drug addicted parents or have problems fostering relationships, and these life traumas are best dealt with by a professional therapist. If an officer candidate is openly gay and has never seen a therapist, that should be a big red flag.
But in our society screening based on sexual orientation is a crime, so we get incidents like this one.