Josue Garriga, a controversial former Jacksonville police detective who had sex with an underage girl, will stay in prison until nearly 2050 and emerge a sex offender, a federal judge said Thursday.
"This is an extraordinarily serious offence," U.S. District Judge Marcia Morales Howard said before handing down a sentence of 292 months ― 24 years, four months ― for coercing or enticing a minor into sex.
"It wasn't just immoral, and it wasn't a mistake. It was a crime he committed over and over again," the judge said.
Garriga, 35, pleaded guilty in July, and Howard said that was the only reason federal sentencing guidelines didn't recommend requiring a life term behind bars.
The 12-year police officer apologized to the Sheriff's Office, his family,
the girl who was 17 during their months-long relationship and to her family, who had called police in Clay County after realizing the man she had met serving coffee in church was exploiting her.
https://www.jacksonville.com/story/news/crime/2024/11/21/ex-jso-cop-garriga-gets-24-years-in-prison-for-sex-with-underage-girl/76482137007/