Jacksonville officer in Jamee Johnson police shooting is arrested in Clay County case
A Jacksonville sheriff's officer involved in one of the most controversial police shootings in the city's recent history has been arrested in Clay County involving reported inappropriate behavior with a minor.
Josue Garriga III, 34, was charged Wednesday with unlawful sexual activity with certain minors, lewd touching of certain minors, travel to meet a minor for unlawful sexual activity, transmission of harmful material to a minor and use of a two-way communication device to facilitate a felony, according to his Clay County Sheriff's Office arrest report.
Bail for each count is $75,000, according to the report, totaling $375,000. The Public Defender's Office has temporarily been assigned to his case. The public defender has previously advised his office does not comment on pending cases.
Garriga was hired in July 2018 and resigned following his arrest, the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office said.
Garriga was the officer who shot and killed 22-year-old Jamee Johnson during a Dec. 14, 2019, traffic stop that many people deemed was racial profiling for a seat belt violation and led to a federal lawsuit against the officer, the Sheriff's Office and the city. Johnson's family settled the lawsuit almost four years later that also led to the City Council giving Sheriff T.K. Waters signing authority over legal settlements involving his officers.
The State Attorney's Office ruled the shooting justifiable. But Johnson’s shooting prompted several protests and rallies against police. Lawmakers and citizens called for the release of the body-camera footage. Nearly eight months later, the State Attorney’s Office released footage from two officers’ cameras along with a series of reports and photos related to the investigation.
Following then-Sheriff Mike Williams' abrupt retirement amid a separate scandal over living in an out-of-jurisdiction county, newly elected Sheriff T.K. Waters has since established a new policy to release "appropriately edited" bodycam video within 21 days.
The 2019 bodycam video shows Johnson, who local court records showed had no criminal history, initially complying with officers during a traffic stop about 5:10 p.m. in the 3000 block of Buckman Street but then lunging back into his car where he had a gun. After Garriga shoots him during a struggle, Johnson is seen on the ground begging for help while officers waited at least two minutes for backup before rendering any aid.
Johnson was pulled over as part of the Sheriff’s Office’s “violent-crime reduction strategy,” which attempts to use traffic stops to find drugs and guns in neighborhoods where violent crime is most prevalent. According to the State Attorney’s Office report, there were 48 incidents of violence within a mile of the shooting in the 7½ before Johnson’s death.
What is Josue Garriga now accused of?
In this week's arrest, the Clay County investigation involved the mother of a 17-year-old girl who contacted the Sheriff’s Office early this month "after finding concerning and inappropriate communications on her daughter’s cellphone," according to the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office. The heavily redacted arrest report, citing state privacy laws, states that nude photos were exchanged. The mother also reported flirtatious behavior had been observed at a church function between the pair.
As Clay County detectives investigated, a forensic download of the girl's phone identified several hundred contacts or attempted contacts between her and Garriga during the previous five-month period.
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"Following an extensive investigation and the interviewing of those involved or having knowledge of the reported information, detectives learned of the substantial interactions between the victim and suspect, both electronic as well as in person," the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office said.
Garriga also was part of investigations into a group chat among members of the gang unit involving racial texts regarding the Johnson case and the controversial viral video beating arrest of Le’Keian Woods.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville officer who shot Jamee Johnson is arrested in another case
