Holly Hill, FL - A joint investigation between the State Attorney's Office and the police departments of Holly Hill and Ormond Beach bring a 40-year-old to justice after investigators find out he was sexually involved with a minor.
One Holly Hill investigator first learned of the incident back on July 22nd, after an investigator from the State Attorney's Office informed them of an Ormond Beach case where a 17-year-old female was supposedly sexually involved with a man identified as Javier Ruiz.
A few days later, investigators from Holly Hill, Ormond and the State Attorney's Office met to discuss the Ormond Beach case. According to their report, a subject, whose identity was redacted in the narrative, came forward to the Ormond Beach Police Department on June 29th and reported that his daughter was involved in a sexual relationship with Ruiz.
According to their report, by July 30th, Ormond Beach already had nine articles of evidence in the case which included photos of messages between the teen and Ruiz, the victim's phone and a thumb drive of the "victim and suspect together sexually."
Investigators also had recorded conversations between Ruiz and the teen where Ruiz reportedly admitted that he was in love with her, but he never admitted to them being involved intimately.
However, one of the thumb drives in the police's possession contained multiple photos and a video of a male and female, whose appearances seemed to match those of Ruiz and the teen, performing sexual acts on each other. Another video also showed the teen exhaling smoke suspected to be from smoking marijuana.
Investigators soon determined that the two met at a Christmas party when both of them worked at the same place. It was also suggested that Ruiz supplied the teen with marijuana, which was mentioned in messages on Facebook. Detectives also obtained photos and videos of the teen smoking what appeared to be marijuana.
Then, on Monday (August 3rd), the teen's father met with police again to give a recorded statement. The father told investigators that he learned of his daughter's involvement with Ruiz through his ex-wife, the daughter's mother. And, at some point, the daughter reportedly disclosed that she had been in a relationship with Ruiz since the last week of December 2019. According to detectives, that conversation was captured on the family's surveillance system.
After his talk with police, the father informed investigators that he wanted to pursue criminal charges against Ruiz for having a sexual relationship with his underaged daughter.
Eventually, following another controlled call with Ruiz that same day, detectives gathered enough evidence to charge Ruiz with unlawful sexual activity with a minor and contributing to the delinquency of a child.
According to Volusia County Corrections, Ruiz was booked into custody on Tuesday (August 4th) and is currently held on a $102,500 bond.
