KLAS LAS VEGAS As confirmed by the 8 News Now Investigators, a former Las Vegas police officer is charged with grooming many juveniles and paying, them to commit multiple sex attacks.
Harvey Velazquez, 31, is accused of 21 offenses, according to documents, including luring a kid into performing a sex act and abusing them.
Velazquez was technically a police officer undergoing field training when he was fired by the Las Vegas Metro Police Department on April 23, the day of his arrest, according to a department spokesperson.
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Two minors were receiving ‘inappropriate text messages’ from a phone number linked to Velazquez when someone alerted the police on April 1,
according to the records. Court records do not state the children’s ages, however investigators claimed they were less than sixteen.
When conversing with investigators, As to the records, Velazquez acknowledged having conversations with the children, ‘on several occasions’ and ‘elucidated his awareness that conversing with the girls was inappropriate.’ Following that, Velazquez’s phone was searched by police with a warrant,
and they discovered texts that were deemed ‘sexual in nature,’ allegedly included comments in which Velazquez ‘talked about exchanging money for sexual acts.’
A document claimed that starting in 2021, Velazquez sent money to at least one youngster via an application and sent naked pictures and videos of himself, some taken at work, with her.
Velazquez allegedly accepted an offer “to trade oral sex” for a vape pen in one instance, according to police documents.
Documents said that in one correspondence from February, Velazquez met the child at an off-Strip hotel after reportedly giving her $250.
Velazquez allegedly told the child in a different instance. In order to prevent her from becoming pregnant, he had to accompany her to get Plan B, an emergency contraceptive tablet.
Velazquez, according to authorities, may have paid one child up to $800 ‘over the duration of [the] incidents.’
As of Friday, Velazquez was still being held at the Clark County Detention Center on a $275,000 bond.
If Velazquez posts bond, he will have to wear an alcohol monitor and avoid the kids involved in the case. On August 27, a preliminary hearing was set to take place.
It wasn’t until the 8 News Now Investigators’ reporting that Velazquez’s arrest became known. The state of Nevada has sixteen as the legal age for consenting.
