A former athletic director at a charter school on the campus of Barry University, who was arrested for sexually abusing a student, reached a plea deal with the victim and state prosecutors Wednesday that will keep him out of prison and off the state’s sexual offender registry.
Jose Glen Rodriguez-Vazquez, 34, was convicted of a single count of an offense against a student by an authority figure, a second-degree felony. He will spend a year in Miami-Dade County jail. And during the first two years of a 10-year probationary period after his release, he will be required to wear an ankle monitor with GPS.
Significantly, he won’t have to register on the state’s sexual offender website, which limits where a felon convicted of a sexual crime can live or who that person can associate with, and often makes it nearly impossible for them to find work.
The deal reached before Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Christine Hernandez also includes a lengthy list of three dozen provisions that Rodriguez-Vazquez must meet for the agreement to stick. Included in those provisions is paying for any treatment the victim may require, no contact with the victim verbally or in person, no unsupervised contact with minors and entering a sexual offender treatment program.
Rodriguez-Vazquez’s victim wasn’t in court Wednesday. Given an opportunity by the judge, the victim’s father said on Zoom that no one wished to speak about the plea deal or the incidents involving his daughter. The only words spoken by Rodriguez-Vazquez during the proceeding were “yes, your honor,” under questioning from the judge.
Outside the courtroom, Rodriguez-Vazquez’s attorney Frank Quintero Jr. apologized to the victim.
“It’s an unfortunate incident, something that should never have happened,” he said.
Lawsuit: Teachers saw them together, ignored it
Rodriguez-Vazquez was in charge of athletics at Doctors Charter School of Miami Shores when he was arrested in late 2023. The school teaches students in grades six through 12. His arrest report said police became aware of suspicious activity involving the teacher and an underage female student who didn’t take any of his classes.
Surveillance video, police said, showed the student visiting the athletic director in his office. She told police they had “sexual conversations.”
His arrest report tells of one incident caught on surveillance camera in which the student enters his office in a short skirt and sweater. As she leans over to put something on his desk, police said Rodriguez-Vazquez then leaned back in his chair and looked at her buttocks.
Though much of what took place was out of direct camera view, police said there seemed to be several times when the student and the athletic director were making a “body adjustment.” When police questioned the student, they said she told them of “multiple inappropriate sexual conversations.”
Last November, the victim filed a civil lawsuit against the Miami-Dade County School Board, the charter school and Rodriguez-Vazquez. In the suit, she claims that in 2022 and 2023 — when she was 17 — Rodriguez-Vazquez “met, groomed, sexually assaulted, harassed and victimized” her.
Referring to herself as Jane Doe, the charter school student says in the lawsuit that other teachers and administrators who “frequently” walked into the athletic director’s office while she was with him failed to intervene or even question the situation.
“Instead of investigating why the child was constantly alone with the defendant, the other teachers and administrators decided to stick their heads in the sand despite there being no legitimate reason for Jane Doe to be in his office/classroom,” the lawsuit says.
It goes on to say that Jane Doe is seeking damages for her pain and suffering, medical care treatment, loss of earnings and loss of ability to earn money.
