ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — An Orange County deputy was arrested Friday for allegedly soliciting a minor via computer who was working with the county’s Sex Crimes Unit, according to the sheriff’s office.

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Deputy Charles Cruz has been relieved of all law enforcement duties without pay in response to the arrest, according to the sheriff’s office. He was hired in August 2021 and worked in the uniform patrol division, the sheriff’s office said.

While working patrol duty last Sunday, Cruz responded to a call for service at the home of a minor who was already working with the sheriff’s office’s Sex Crimes Unit because she had already been a victim of sexual cyberharassment, according to a news release.

The call for service was related to a report of someone, possibly the suspect in the cyberharassment case, throwing an object through a window of the victim’s home.

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In the course of his criminal mischief investigation, Cruz allegedly made inappropriate contact with the minor via text message that became more inappropriate “as he tried to gauge the minor’s interest in meeting in person,” according to a news release.

Cruz’s alleged inappropriate contact was discovered Thursday by the sheriff’s Sex Crimes Unit that was already examining the victim’s phone in connection to the earlier sexual cyberharassment case, the news release states.

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On Thursday, a detective assumed the identity of the minor and texted with Cruz. Through the course of that conversation, Cruz made “made sexually explicit comments to the person he believed was the minor,” the news release states.

Cruz was immediately located, relieved of duty, arrested and taken to the county jail.

“These are very serious criminal allegations, and there is no place in the Orange County Sheriff’s Office for anyone that would abuse their power to victimize a minor. To make matters worse, this deputy preyed on a young woman who was already a victim of sexual cyberharassment,” Sheriff John Mina said in a news release. “As law enforcement officers, we are held to the highest standards of conduct whether on duty or off duty. He will never patrol the streets of Orange County again.”

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