Without question, this case and this story is not only a tragedy in our justice system but proof that our justice system has once again failed those it promises to protect. This story about Jessie Menocal Jr. is an example of a true injustice propagated by a failed system. Never in the history of our nation has a civilian or member of law enforcement ever been acquitted by the state attorney's office on allegations of misconduct, allowed to return to work for nearly 4 1/2 years without incident and then decide to reopen a federal investigation in the same case, with the same information and testimony collected by career criminals and charge a law enforcement officer with a grand jury indictment.

The government has spent over $10 million dollars of taxpayer money, over a three-year period, to investigate this case, only to come up short and unable to present factual evidence of wrongdoing by Mr. Menocal. In their investigation, they collected DNA samples, phone records, online and social media forensics, interviewed criminal witnesses to build a case, scoured for evidence and found no proof or facts to support any of the allegations in this case. The sad truth is that ultimately the government decided to charge Jesse Menocal Jr. with simple misdemeanors in order to close the case.

Jessie Menocal Jr., after spending over $500,000 in attorney fees to clear and defend his name and incur $200,000 in loans and debt just to provide for his young family, has reluctantly accepted the plea deal offered to him on misdemeanor counts. It is without question that this injustice has taken a mental and emotional toll on the Menocal family but worse proven once again, that our justice system needs reform. Our hope, as you read about this case, is that it will enlighten you on the facts, the truth, the real facts about how the system used criminal witness testimony to build a case, put a decorated member of law enforcement under the most serious scrutiny and produce one of the most controversial injustices ever documented in South Florida and in our nation.