Former officer with internal allegations lands school job

A follow-up now to a Fox 35 investigation. A former corrections officer accused of several crimes got a job at a school in Osceola County. Then he was arrested on child abuse charges. Fox 35 investigative reporter Marie Ettinger has new details tonight about how he was able to get a job working with kids. That alleged victim told me she didn't get justice at the time, but she's hoping for some form of it now. We know of at least three investigations of John Carrasquillo that took place while he was working as a corrections officer at the Orange County Jail. A report from the OCCD Internal Affairs Unit concluded the preponderance of evidence, which is a legal standard, meaning something is more likely to be true than not, quote. Clearly shows corrections officer John Carrasquillo willfully and knowingly exposed his sexual organ and simulated a sexual act to an inmate while in the booking and release center and that he'd sexually battered a former inmate. That former inmate is Jessica Gallo. I sat in my bed and just cried and I felt disgusting. FDLE records show Carrasquillo lost his corrections license because of these allegations but didn't seem to face any consequences beyond that. We wanted to know why. To me it's like, okay, here's a slap on the wrist. The first time we know of that Carrasquillo found himself in trouble in Central Florida is in 2009. He went through a pretrial diversion program for stalking charges after repeatedly anonymously calling his wife's friend and was placed on a three day suspension at work. The next investigation is in 2010. I've buried this for 16 years. And I've never healed from it. It's been really, really hard in my life. An Orange County Sheriff's Office incident report explains Carrasquillo met Jessica Gallo while she was in the jail and looked up her phone number in the booking system. Months later, the report says, detectives collected pubic hairs and bodily fluid from a crime scene in Jessica's house as they investigated Carrasquillo for sexual battery. The Sheriff's Office emphasized Carrasquillo could be prosecuted, but Jessica got cold feet. I just got too scared since he knew what Where I lived and then being young and going through divorce, I thought that my kids would be taken from me, like if I did something wrong. She wavered, backed out, changed her mind, changed her mind again, and ultimately decided she couldn't take on the risk. Do I wish I would have followed through with everything? I do. Things stay quiet until 2013, when investigators with the jail's internal affairs unit started looking into an allegation that Carrasquillo had led an inmate behind a pillar at the jail and touched himself. The IAU found video evidence and phone records showing Carrasquillo calling from both the booking center's phone and his own cell phone. The investigators conducted a monitored phone call where they say Carrasquillo seems to admit to the crime by apologizing three separate times when asked about it. The jail's IAU report says they forwarded. All of this information to OCSO, including the confession phone call for review and disposition of a criminal case. They said that was sent to the same detective who handled Carrasquillo's 2010 case. But the sheriff's office says they don't have a case file for the 2013 allegations. They told me, quote, Detective Thorpe received an email from an OCCD investigator in October 2013 advising they had a victim who'd contact the non-emergency number to report John Carrasquillo within the next 24 hours. However, we have no record of any case being reported to the Orange County Sheriff's Office involving John Carrasquillo from 2013. I requested emails from both the Sheriff's Office and the jail. The jail provided me with this email to the detective requesting a But somehow, the sheriff's office never opened its own investigation and never forwarded charges to the state attorney's office. These cases are from before the current state attorney's administration, but the SAO told me in a statement, our office prosecutes cases that are presented to us by law enforcement, and prosecutors must have sufficient admissible evidence to prove the charges in court. When a victim is unwilling or unable to participate in the prosecution, it can significantly affect the evidence available, and in some cases, limit our ability to move the case forward. The Osceola County Public School District told me they did follow their normal procedures when hiring John Carrasquillo, including conducting a background check. If he had been arrested for his indecent exposure or sexual battery allegations, that would have come up on a background screening when he applied for a job at Point Siena High School, and he would never have been allowed to work there as a campus monitor or as a girls basketball coach. He's pleaded not guilty to his child abuse charges. Marie Ettinger, Fox 35 News. We want to get back.