Rape case arrest report contradicts Miami-Dade police union official’s ‘consensual’ claim
A high-level Miami-Dade police union executive followed a colleague into her hotel room in Palm Beach County, pushed her against a wall and then onto a bed and sexually assaulted her, according to an arrest report released Monday.
The details of the police investigation into Miami-Dade Lt. John Jenkins were released three days after he surrendered to face rape charges, and contradict his defense lawyer’s claim that the encounter was “consensual.”
Jenkins, 50, was the vice president of the South Florida Police Benevolent Association. He resigned from the position after the April 25 incident, as Palm Beach Gardens police launched a probe. Detectives arrested Jenkins after DNA tests linked him to the attack.
The incident happened after the 13th Annual PBA Officers’ Ball, which took place at the Trump National Jupiter Golf Club and drew union members and officials from across the state. The attack itself, according to police, took place at the PGA National Resort and Spa, where Jenkins, the victim and other PBA officials had been staying during the festivities leading up to the ball.
Jenkins’ defense lawyer on Saturday said that Jenkins was looking forward to “his day in court to clear his name and reputation.”
“This incident involves two consenting adults who have known each other for many years. Anything that may have occurred was consensual,” lawyer Heidi Perlet said in a statement. “A married man who is invited by a married woman to her hotel room after a day of partying and drinking at a PBA event, may be poor judgment, but is certainly not rape.”
Miami-Dade police lieutenant and union VP suspended amid criminal probe in Palm Beach
The woman told police an entirely different story. She said that a group of colleagues had been downstairs at the hotel bar after the gala when she decided to return to her room to sleep. Another Florida PBA official, Steven Slade, had walked her to her room the previous nights, but Jenkins said he was leaving “and would walk with her,” the report said.
When they got to her room, the woman opened the door and “Jenkins immediately followed her inside, pushed her against the wall, and began forcibly kissing her and told her he had a crush on her for some time,” the report said.
The woman told police that Jenkins pushed her on the bed, despite her protests and telling him “no” and “stop” and “you’re married, your wife and kids are in the hotel,” according to the report.
During the sex attack, she managed to text another union official, Matthew Puckett, who is the executive director of the Florida PBA. The messages read: “help me right [now]” and “now” and “please.” She escaped to the bathroom, the report said, and called Puckett and left the line open, hiding the phone in her dress.
“Puckett, who had sensed something was wrong, arrived at [her] room and began knocking on the door,” the report said.
The report said that Jenkins “frantically” told her that “Matt Puck is at the door. Tell him you’re at the bar.” When Jenkins walked to the other side of the room, the woman bolted for the door and left with Puckett.
Puckett corroborated her story, and said he could hear her on the open line saying “don’t do this, you’re married,” the report said.
Puckett summoned Slade, who called Palm Beach Gardens police. Detective Stacey Clayton, the lead investigator, also pulled surveillance video, which showed “Jenkins seemed to push his way into the room,” the report said.
“Additional footage from after the incident showed Puckett and [the victim] walking down the hallway and [she] is clearly upset and crying,” the report said.
Jenkins, who began working with the Miami-Dade Police Department in 1996 and who worked in its public information office before moving to union leadership, could not be reached for comment. He was recently named a new member of the Orange Bowl Committee. The police department has now suspended Jenkins with pay.
He is facing felony charges of sexual battery and attempted sexual battery.
