Opinion ID: 78396
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Officer Ortiz's Recorded Interview

Text: On May 7, 2007, E.M., then fourteen years old, reported to the Seminole County, Florida, Sheriff's Office that, when she was thirteen years old, Sarras had engaged in sexual intercourse with her and had taken pictures. On May 7, Dana Ortiz, an investigator with the office's Division of Crimes against Children, conducted a sworn, recorded interview of E.M. E.M. told Ortiz that Sarras was her stepfather and she stayed with him at the Tweed residence several nights a week. According to E.M., around October or November 2006, Sarras began having sexual intercourse and oral sex with E.M. during her visits to his Tweed residence unless she made up an excuse to avoid it. Sarras had sexual intercourse with E.M. more than ten times, performed oral sex on her about three times, and had her perform oral sex on him more than ten times. E.M. was unsure of the dates of these sexual encounters and could not say for sure whether they were before or after Thanksgiving or Christmas. E.M. told Officer Ortiz that, on one occasion, Sarras took a lot of pictures while she was naked and while she was performing sexual acts on and with him. Sarras used a digital camera that he kept at his Tweed residence. [1] Asked if Sarras had shown her pictures of other girls, E.M. said he had not. Sarras tried to show E.M. the pictures he took of her, but she did not want to look at them and refused. E.M. said that Sarras's laptop computer was always on the coffee table in front of the television. E.M. believed that Sarras had downloaded the pictures to his laptop because he said that he wanted to store them so he could ... look at them sometimes. Under the supervision of Officer Ortiz, E.M. telephoned Sarras. During the recorded call, Sarras repeatedly denied any involvement in the alleged offenses and asked if E.M. needed help. Sarras told E.M. that he was going to call her mother immediately about the call. Sarras attempted to call several times, but, at Ortiz's direction, E.M.'s mother did not answer. Within minutes of the call, Sarras deleted 41 sexual images of E.M. on his laptop, uninstalled his access to LimeWire, and deleted adult pornographic images downloaded earlier that day through LimeWire. [2]