JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A former member of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office Gang Unit who pleaded guilty in July to enticement of a minor to engage in unlawful sexual activity was sentenced to more than 24 years in federal prison on Thursday.
Josue Garriga, 34, faced a mandatory minimum penalty of 10 years, up to life.
Garriga’s sentencing hearing began at 2 p.m. at the federal courthouse in downtown Jacksonville.
In court ahead of the sentencing, Garriga apologized to the victim and their family, his wife, the mother of his son and former JSO coworkers.
He asked for mercy and said he never thought he was doing anything harmful to children.
“I am guilty of a lapse in judgment,” Garriga said. “I’m deeply sorry for my actions...I own up to everything.”
But the judge was not swayed.
Garriga was sentenced to 292 months in prison and the judge said the circumstances of the case were egregious and Garriga knew what he was doing.
The judge said Garriga used his law enforcement resources to commit the crimes, adding that the victim was so mentally hurt that she tried to kill herself.
The judge said Garriga went to great lengths to hide evidence of criminal sexual misconduct and weaponized his position as a police officer.
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Garriga will be required to register as a sex offender and serve a term of supervised release of 10 years.
According to court documents, Garriga met the victim at church when she was 17 years old.
Federal investigators said Garriga pursued a sexual relationship with the child victim until approximately March 7, 2024. This included reaching up the child’s skirt while she worked serving coffee before church service.
At some point, investigators said, Garriga used his JSO-issued cellphone and an undercover Instagram account to reach out to the child victim and get her phone number. Garriga then used his personal cellphone to communicate with the victim, directing their messages to an end-to-end encrypted app set to automatically delete the messages after 24 hours.
On at least two occasions, Garriga used his JSO work vehicle to travel to the child victim’s neighborhood in Clay County to meet with the minor and engage in sexual contact that was illegal under Florida law.
On another occasion, Garriga met with the teen at a coffee shop in Clay County and enticed her to his JSO work vehicle, where he engaged in unlawful sexual activity with the child victim and refused to let her leave until she performed sex acts on him.
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Garriga was at the center of a State Attorney’s Office investigation in 2019 after he shot and killed 22-year-old Jamee Johnson during a traffic stop. The interaction that turned violent when Johnson and Garriga got into a scuffle was caught on police bodycam. Although the SAO ruled the shooting justifiable, Johnson’s family filed a wrongful death lawsuit in federal court against the city. The city settled the case for $200,000.
The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, visit www.justice.gov/psc.