OPELIKA, Ala. (CN) - Two 15-year-old girls say a City of Lanett police officer sexually molested them on the job and told them he would "get into trouble" if they told anyone. The girls say the cop has a history of it.
The girls' parents claim in Federal Court that Office Jose Maldonado Jaramillo Jr. stopped the girls and asked them if they had drugs. When they denied it, the girls say, Jaramillo put his hands in their pants pockets and felt under their shirts, groping their breasts. After dropping the girls off, Jaramillo allegedly hugged them and put his hands down their pants inside their underwear, feeling their buttocks. The girls say Jaramillo then told them that he would "get into trouble" if they told anyone.
The parents say Jaramillo had probable cause to search the girls, who have suffered "severe and lasting emotional trauma" that required therapy.
The families say Jaramillo had a history of abusing and fondling girls and women during his employment with another police department, but Lanett hired him anyway.
The chief of police and the City of Lanett are also named defendants. The families demand damages for battery, wantonness, outrage, negligence and constitutional violations. They are represented by M. Brandon Walker of Birmingham.
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