WASHINGTON – U.S. Customs and Border
Protection Officer Paulo Morales, 47, was arrested today after having been
indicted yesterday by a federal grand jury in the Southern District of Florida
on charges of deprivation of civil rights and abusive sexual contact, announced
Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division, and
Wifredo A. Ferrer, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida.
The six-count indictment charges Morales with
three felony counts of abusive sexual contact and three misdemeanor counts of
deprivation of civil rights.
The indictment alleges that on various dates
in January 2011, Morales, while working as an officer with U.S. Customs and
Border Protection at the Miami International Airport, committed civil rights
offenses and abusive sexual contact by the non-consensual groping of the
breasts of three separate women, who were in the custody of Customs and Border
Protection.
If convicted, Morales faces a maximum sentence
of two years in prison for each count of abusive sexual contact and one year in
prison for each count of deprivation of civil rights.
This case is being investigated by the
Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General, and is being
prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney William White of the U.S. Attorney's
Office for the Southern District of Florida and Trial Attorney Henry Leventis
of the Civil Rights Division.
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