LAWRENCE (CBS) – A
25-year veteran officer with the Lawrence Police Department will not fight
extradition to Florida.
Officer Carols
Gonzalez is accused of sexually assaulting a teenage girl while on vacation
there. The girl is a family member.
In court Thursday,
he tried desperately to hide from the camera as two Florida detectives waited
patiently to take him south and his own chief pondered yet another Lawrence cop
accused of going astray.
“We’re held to a
higher standard,” said Lawrence Police Chief John Romero, “the public expects a
lot from us and rightfully so and we need to live up to that.”
Gonzalez is
charged with sexual battery on a young family member.
The teenage girl
went to Lawrence Police headquarters in December insisting that Officer
Gonzalez had fed her alcohol and then sexually assaulted her during a family
summer vacation last July.
Lawrence
detectives alerted authorities in Haines City, Florida and Gonzalez was
essentially suspended with pay.
It was also in
December, that neighbors say the officer’s wife moved out of their rented home
on Plummer Street, taking her three children while her husband stayed put.
Florida detectives
busted Gonzalez Wednesday, ironically plucking him from the classroom where
he’s a part-time law student. He may be absent a while.
Gonzalez signed
off an extradition Thursday, but prosecutors want to make sure he stays in jail
until his flight to Florida late next week.
Chief Romero says
the officer is still collecting his $60,000 salary.
“If Florida indicts
him, the city could suspend him without pay, or the city could also start
termination hearings as well,” said Chief Romero.
Officer Gonzalez
is likely to spend a lot of time hiding in the weeks to come.
Gonzalez becomes
the fourth Lawrence Police officer put on administrative leave amid legal
trouble in the last six months. All four are still on the payroll because the
mayor has thwarted the chief’s effort to fire them.