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A case out of Myiramar, Florida is still ongoing and it shows how the issues we uncover in this episode of Crime Junkie.
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Issues within the Police Explorer program may still be happening. In December 2024, officer George Richardson
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was arrested on charges that he allegedly used a teen from Myiramar's Explorer program in a sexual
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performance, including coercing her to participate in intimate activities on FaceTime and sexing and soliciting nude
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photos and videos. The teenage girl met him through the program and spent years as an explorer because she wanted to be
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a cop. Her attorney, Andreas Beras, says the abuse grew out of one-on-one after hours rideongs where she was allegedly
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being treated like quasi sworn staff, interviewing witnesses, taking statements, and Burio says she was told
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outright no one would believe a minor over a cop and resisting could hurt her future in law enforcement.
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When Crime Junky's reporter Nenah asked the department about it, they stressed that it happened outside the official
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scope and activities of the program. But the teen's lawyer says that the way the
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program was run over several years is what enabled the abuse to happen in the first place. That the teen was
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repeatedly alone with an officer. She was doing work she shouldn't have been doing. And none of that triggered a
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policy violation. Now, Richardson has pleaded not guilty to the charges he faces. And earlier
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this year, Myiramar PD told Nenah that Richardson had been placed on administrative leave without pay,
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pending the outcome of the ongoing criminal investigation, and an internal affairs investigation would follow upon
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its conclusion. The Explorer program there has since been rebranded as a public safety cadet program, and a
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spokesperson told Nina it's thriving. The spokesperson said it has resumed with enhanced protocols and structural
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changes for stricter supervision and greater safeguards. In the months following Richardson's
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arrest, the teen's lawyer says that she was in therapy, facing backlash at school, and rethinking the career the
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program promised her. And it makes you wonder if a teen can be isolated, [clears throat] exploited, and told that
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no one will believe her, what does it say about the system she hoped to join?