4 May 30 - June 5, 2024 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com New Times | music | cafe | culture | Night+Day | news | letters | coNteNts | MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2008 miaminewtimes.com MIAMI NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | FILM | ART | STAGE | NIGHT+DAY | METRO | RIPTIDE | LETTERS | CONTENTS | ▼ HIALEAH BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION COP WHO SEXUALLY ASSAULTED YOUNG VICTIMS GETS EARLY RELEASE. BY ALEX DELUCA A former Hialeah Police Depart- ment sergeant convicted of sexually abusing several young women in his custody has been released early from prison. In 2015, Jesus “Jessie” Menocal Jr. was ac- cused of sexually assaulting several women and girls, including a 14-year-old and 17-year- old, while in uniform. Menocal remained on the police force for years despite the harrow- ing allegations — even receiving a raise — be- fore he was fired in 2019 and arrested on three counts of depriving women of their civil rights. In 2022, Menocal was sentenced to three years in prison following a plea deal in which he admitted to abusing four victims: a 25-year-old, a 17-year-old, a 19-year-old, and a woman of an unspecified age who was having a mental health crisis, according to a federal sentencing memorandum. Less than two years later, the former po- lice officer has been freed from prison “due to good behavior.” “Due to good behavior and credits in prison, [Menocal] has been released to a half- way house and is due to start his probation on April 12th, 2024,” a court motion reads. Menocal, who began his prison term in July 2022, is not required to register as a sex offender in Florida. He was able to plead to misdemeanor civil rights charges, rather than felony charges, be- cause the U.S. Department of Justice claimed there were gaps in civil rights law that would have made it difficult to convict him in a fel- ony case. Less than two weeks after Menocal finalized the plea deal, U.S. Congress passed legislation that sought to close those gaps and widen prosecutors’ ability to pursue felony charges against cops who sexually abuse peo- ple while on duty. Menocal’s attorney has not responded to New Times’ request for comment. Prior to his arrest, Menocal served as a po- lice officer for 13 years. His father, Jesus Menocal Sr. was the longtime chief of the em- battled Sweetwater Police Department. As previously reported by New Times, Menocal was accused of picking up young women and girls and luring them into city al- leyways and other secluded areas, including inside a local police station, where he would then force them into performing oral sex or having sexual intercourse. In one instance, a 19-year-old woman was walking down a street in Hialeah when Menocal pulled up and asked her to ride along with him, insisting it “wasn’t safe” to walk alone at night. She initially refused, but after being pressured into his police car, the woman was brought to a vacant alley where Menocal sexually assaulted her, according to court documents. In another incident, Menocal promised to release a woman who was suffering a mental health crisis in exchange for a sexual favor. According to court documents, Menocal led the woman to a bathroom inside a Hialeah Police Department substation and coerced her into performing oral sex on him before placing her back into handcuffs and ordering another officer to drive her to a hospital for an involuntary psych evaluation. One girl was just 14 when Menocal alleg- edly forced her to perform oral sex under threat of jail time. His oldest reported victim, in her 20s, fell from a moving car and died months after investigators questioned her about her claims of abuse at the hands of Menocal. As part of his plea agreement, Menocal agreed to surrender his police license and not reapply for any law enforcement position. But while his misdemeanor conviction al- lows him to maintain his right to possess fire- arms, conditions of his release don’t allow him to possess a firearm while on probation. Last month, Menocal’s attorney asked a judge to consider modifying his probation terms to allow Menocal to possess firearms “for work purposes only.” The motion noted that Menocal plans to resume work at his family’s firearms training school, Menocal International Training. “[Menocal] has the desire to become a productive member of society and rebuild the trust and reputation he once had as a police officer,” the motion reads. A federal judge ultimately denied the request. David Lane, a civil rights attorney and criminal defense expert, told New Times in 2022 that Miami-Dade state prosecutors “who were inept or corrupt, or both,” bore re- sponsibility for not pursuing felony charges against Menocal. “This is a crime under Florida law, flat-out sexual-assault law. I’m just shocked that the state didn’t go after this cop,” Lane said. Assistant State Attorney Johnette Hardi- man’s closeout memo justified the decision not to bring state charges against Menocal by pointing to alleged credibility issues with tes- timony. Miami-Dade State Attorney Kather- ine Fernandez Rundle said in a 2019 statement that her office lacked “sufficient evidence to ethically file state sexual assault charges” but referred the case to the feds for civil rights prosecution. | RIPTIDE | Ex-cop Jesus “Jessie” Menocal Jr. was accused of sexually assaulting or raping at least four women and girls, including a 14-year-old, while in uniform. Screenshot via WPLG ▼ MIAMI-DADE MONEY MATTERS HOW MANY MILLIONAIRES AND BILLIONAIRES LIVE IN MIAMI? BY ALEX DELUCA I f you’ve noticed a proliferation of ultra-luxury cars or a wave of headlines about $20 mil- lion-plus home sales, it’s no coincidence. Miami’s population of uber-wealthy residents is growing. A report on the world’s wealthiest cities, published earlier this month by London-based investment-migration consulting firm Henley & Partners, found that Miami once again made the list of top 50 places in the world for millionaires. According to the annual report, conducted in partnership with data intelligence firm New World Wealth, a whopping 35,300 millionaires, 164 centi-millionaires (individuals with liquid investable wealth of more than $100 million), and 15 billionaires called Miami and Miami Beach home as of last December. The report also revealed that the Miami area saw a 78 percent increase in millionaire residents over the last decade — as well as that it boasts the same number of billionaires as Dubai, Frank- furt, Taipei, and Dallas. To create the report, New World Wealth uti- lized an in-house database that logs the “move- ments” of more than 150,000 high-net-worth individuals, including company founders and polit- ical leaders. The report also used publicly available sources including LinkedIn and property statistics, such as the number of high-value homes in each city, according to Henley & Partners. While Miami has long been a haven for the mega-rich, the area has seen a remarkable influx of wealthy newcomers in recent years. In other words, the likelihood of running into someone akin to Bezos at, say, your morning pi- lates class or local ventanita, has markedly in- creased. During the pandemic, Silicon Valley billion- aires like PayPal co- founder Peter Thiel and investment gu- rus such as hedge fund operator Ken Griffin flocked to the Miami area seeking tax breaks and a tropical cli- mate — earning the city the nickname “Little Manhattan.” U.S. Census Bureau data showed that Florida had the largest popula- tion growth of any state in the 2021-2022 report- ing period. In August 2023, fellow billionaire and Ama- zon founder Jeff Bezos bought a $68 million es- tate in Miami’s “billionaire bunker” of Indian Creek Village before snapping up a neighboring mansion in the exclusive island community for $79 million. And as Miami has continued to attract well- to-do new residents, Indian Creek has experi- enced “its own version of gentrification” — with billionaires displacing the neighborhood’s mil- lionaires, according to a Bloomberg report. Meanwhile, since 2019, the cost to rent in- creased more in Miami than nearly any other ma- jor metro area, according to Zillow. One study found that the average Miami renter must rake in a six-figure salary to avoid winding up “rent-bur- dened” (i.e., spending more than 30 percent of personal income on rent). [email protected] MEANWHILE, SINCE 2019, THE COST TO RENT INCREASED MORE IN MIAMI THAN NEARLY ANY OTHER MAJOR METRO AREA.
