A former Florida cop is being accused of using his police database as a dating platform.
Over the past six years, 36-year-old, Leonel Marines had gone on dates and had sex with nearly 150 women, while using his badge and database at a Florida police station, an internal investigation discovered.
During a news conference on Thursday, Bradenton Police Chief Melanie Bevan stated that Marines “betrayed the trust of this department and the citizens of Bradenton” and “cast a dark shadow on our law enforcement profession.”
“Leonel Marines was not utilizing this data for law enforcement purposes whatsoever,” she stated. “Instead, he was using it in a variety of ways — via social media, cold telephone calls, visits to their homes under the guise of being there for police business, you name it, to try and get dates with these women. And he was very persistent, and successful at times, in his efforts to do so.”
Marines is now under FBI investigation and was placed on leave after he resigned in October.
In June 2018, the internal investigation started after he trailed a woman in his police car and approached her door, which was actually the home of her parents, said Bevan. As reported by the chief, the parents were informed by Marines that he was responding to a domestic dispute and requested to speak with the woman.
The parents knew of no such incident and wouldn’t allow Marines to see their daughter. When questioned by the police commander about why he was at the home, Marines stated that he came to the house because the woman’s headlight was out.
As the department examined his database queries, which included women who weren’t involved in any police cases.
Bevan stated that the police interviewed approximately 150 women. Some of the women were questioned again, which led the police to finding out about their fellow officer contacting the women repeatedly and inappropriately.
Since this incident, the police chief has stated that the internal database auditing practices have been upgraded so that situations would be avoided in the near future.
