Broward County Deputy Jonathan Bleiweiss Received Complaints One Year Before His Arrest - And Was Named “Employee Of The Year”

More potentially damaging information against Broward Deputy Jonathan Bleiweiss is coming to light as the prosecution prepares its case against the officer. Bleiweiss, you recall, is accused of sexually assaulting and stalking at least eight undocumented immigrants. Investigators have followed up on rumors that Bleiweiss had been abusing the homeless in addition to the undocumented. 

In June of 2008, a local priest named Father Bob Daudill informed police that Bleiweiss had been physically assaulting the homeless who visited All Saints Catholic Mission soup kitchen. Father Daudill even posted fliers with Bleiweiss’ picture around the church, urging the homeless to avoid the deputy. “If you have any interaction with this officer, please inform Father Bob,” it read. One frequent visitor to the kitchen displayed scars about his ankles - evidence, he says, of the times Bleiweiss beat him with a baton. One woman recalls the officer asking for her ID, then throwing her purse into the street. She felt helpless contacting authorities, she said, because he was the authorities. 

Nine months and no investigation later, Bleiweiss was named “Employee of the Year.”

More details are also being revealed about how, exactly, Bleiweiss allegedly went about preying on his undocumented victims. The officer would visit a side street near an apartment complex where Latino workers - many of them undocumented - would wait in the early morning hours to be picked up for construction jobs. Warning soon began circulating among the workers that a “gringo” officer was, wel. Cruising in his patrol car, stopping Hispanic-looking men and asking them for their proof of residency. When they had none, his victims allege, he would ask them for their “leche,” or semen. Charming.

Bleiweiss would also pat down his victims as an excuse to fondle them while making crude comments. Later, he would ask for their phone numbers and inundate them with harassing calls and texts.

Despite all this, Bleiweiss continued to receive honors and accolades at work. He was heralded as a pillar of the gay community, often representing the Broward Sheriff’s Office during gay pride events. He caught robbers, did away with pesky loiterers and, in one case, literally helped an old lady cross a street. Recalls Sheila Basse:

He found my mother walking in a bad neighborhood, took the trouble to look in her purse, find her address and then took her into [her] apartment. That gentleman, what a guy, he helped my mom. If there’s someone who had to vouch for him, to his kindness, it would be me.

The deputy was profiled by the South Florida Blade, a local gay paper, after asking them whether they’d be interested in writing about a stand-up gay officer. 

Now, as the allegations against Jonathan Bleiweiss continue to pile up, the community (or, at least, those in power within that community) is beginning to revaluate his work and reputation. South Florida’s gay community have been careful in denouncing Bleiweiss’ actions while the department who continually honored him has remained relatively mum. 

Even as his brother, Ben, defends Bleiweiss, claims in an email that  ”the Jon Bleiweiss I know would never commit these acts,” and Sheila Blasse, the daughter of the elderly woman the deputy helped home, advocates for his character, it is important to note that prosecuting or painting Bleiweiss as a monster or anything other than a human being who (allegedly) did terrible things is detrimental. 

As we noted with the case Marcelo Lucero, the Latino man who was a victim of a hate crime in Patchogue, painting those who victimize Latinos as monsters or anything other than “normal people” only works to further the believe that the persecution and xenophobia towards Latinos in this country is a rare occurrence committed by sketchy men in trench coats who lurk in alleys, or hate-filled racists shouting slurs from underneath their trucker caps. This isn’t true. Even so-called “pillars of the community” are capable of hurting people. And, if attitudes are ever going to be called out and adjusted, it’s important to dismantle the myth that only bad people can do bad things. 

BSO deputy’s sexual battery charges paint picture of man revered and reviled [The Miami Herald]