By: Sharon Aron Baron
In 2012, a man was arrested and charged with raping an 11 year old Tamarac girl in the Spring Lakes Villas. Now the father of the victim is speaking out because the alleged rapist is free on bond and living in the same complex where the alleged rape occurred.
“He’s a predator,” said *Robert Martin, father of the victim.
In February 2012, Jeffrey Giraldo, 18, was charged with two counts of lewd and lascivious molestation, two counts sexual battery on a victim under 12, and transmission of material harmful to a minor, according to Broward County Sheriff’s Office.
According to the report, Giraldo had sex with the girl at his home, as well as sending her a photo of his penis to her cell phone, despite knowing she was a minor.
“His grandfather got him out on a prerelease bond of $50,000 in July of 2012 where he’s on house arrest with GPS monitoring,” said Martin. “The State Attorney is coming up with a plea deal as we speak. He’s been charged with two capitol felonies each carrying a minimum mandatory of 30 years.”
Martin said that the plea bargain is not fair because he will only get five years probation with psychological evaluations and third degree felony charges on his record. According to Martin, Giraldo may also never receive a sexual predator tag on his record either. “Otherwise, my daughter has to go through a jury trail and be scrutinized for God only knows how long and then there’s the chance he could get off, they say. So, it’s quite a dilemma for me right now on what to do.”
“I copied his Facebook page after the incident, and by the way; that’s how I found him,” said Martin. “His whole life is who he’s going to screw next. He’s all about getting sex with as many women as possible and he doesn’t seem to care who they are. He has absolutely no respect for women and puts them down and makes fun of them throughout his Facebook page. He’s a drug addict and drunk. Now, with this house arrest situation he can be checked for alcohol and drugs at any time, however, if he gets off on this plea bargain do you really believe he will stay clean? I think not.”
Although Martin moved his family to Coral Springs, and enrolled his daughter in another school, he feels this is a small place, and running away really hasn’t been the answer.
“She has every chance of running in to him or his little brother which has already happened a few times. I had to change her school a few months after this happened because of his younger brother and his entourage going after my daughter.”
*Father’s name changed to protect his daughter’s identity
