CYPRESS, Texas - A former Cypress-Fairbanks ISD police officer in training pleaded guilty to raping a 12-year-old girl from Deer Park last year, according to the Harris County District’s Attorney’s Office.
The district attorney’s office says Jorge Luis Bastida, 23, is scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday to 10 years in prison in accordance with a plea deal.
District Attorney Kim Ogg says the plea deal ensures that Bastida admits his guilt and takes responsibility.
“It also means the young girl will not be victimized again by having to take the witness stand to testify against her attacker,” the district attorney’s office stated in a release.
Bastida pleaded guilty last month to one charge of sexual assault of a child under the age of 14.
“He swore an oath to protect children,” said DA Ogg. “He promised to protect and serve one of our most vulnerable populations and instead, he exploited and violated a young girl. He stole her childhood.”
Authorities say Bastida met the girl on the “Meet Me” app, sent a vehicle to pick her up in Deer Park in October 2018 and then took her to a motel.
The district attorney’s office says after the girl was reported missing, officers were able to search her iPad and found the site and her message from someone named “Jay”.
Around 11:30 a.m. on the day after she disappeared, the girl called her mother from the motel. According to the DA’s office, police picked her up and she told them about “Jay”.
Officials say police were able to link the profile to Bastida and surveillance video at the motel showed them walking into the room.
Medical experts at the hospital said the girl’s injuries were consistent with sexual assault.
“We count on people to protect us and our children, especially at school, and something like this is an absolute abuse of that trust,” said Assistant District Attorney Kaitlin Kaufmann, who prosecuted the case. “He should be held to the exact same standard, if not a higher standard, as what he holds other people to on a daily basis.”
Kaufmann credited the Deer Park police department with conducting a thorough investigation that included taking DNA samples and electronic tracking.
At the time of the investigation, Cy-Fair ISD released a statement saying,” The employee, who resigned while being investigated, was in a training program and was always under the direct supervision of a field training officer in CFISD. These allegations are heartbreaking to the more than 16,000 other employees who represent CFISD with integrity."