Florida school resource officer accused of asking girls about dating lives

VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. — A deputy assigned to Heritage Middle School in Deltona is accused of asking girls about their dating lives and being slow to respond to calls on the campus, according to an internal affairs report.

Julio Rodriguez resigned in September to go into real estate before investigators with the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office could speak with him. He is under investigation by the sheriff’s office for allegations of inappropriate conduct and behavior at the school.

The internal affairs report states Rodriguez told students to sit by him and tell him a story about “all the bad things (they) have done at the school,” and asked questions about their boyfriends.

The principal also complained about Rodriguez’s response time to a report of a gun near campus, according to the report.

Rodriguez said he was handling a traffic stop at the time and asked another deputy to cover it until he could get there. The traffic stop could not be verified because his vehicle’s GPS and his body camera were off at the time.

A teacher in the report said they called Rodriguez to stop a parent from picking up their child because the parent appeared to be on drugs. The teacher said Rodriguez didn’t do anything. The parent was arrested 45 minutes later in Deland for narcotics possession and child abuse.

Deputies said Rodriguez did not do a report or turn on his body camera.

Rodriguez was suspended for 80 hours in 2013 because he spent a lot of time talking to his girlfriend while on duty.

Deputies said he got the job at the school because he learned from his past mistakes and changed his ways.

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