Pasco Deputy Fired and Charged With Lewd Molestation of a Minor

The Pasco Sheriff's Office fired and arrested a corporal late last week on child sex abuse charges, in a case the sheriff described in unusually blunt terms at a news conference announcing the arrest.

According to the agency, former Corporal Donald Valverde, 37, was charged with two counts of lewd and lascivious molestation and with unlawful sexual activity involving a minor. The sheriff's office said the alleged conduct occurred while Valverde was off duty, that the former corporal and the alleged victim were known to each other, and that investigators described their relationship as custodial.

The agency said the alleged offenses took place within Pasco County over a lengthy period of time. Valverde joined the sheriff's office in 2015 and had previously been the subject of an internal investigation involving allegations of domestic abuse. He is presumed innocent, and the charges are allegations that have not been tested in court.

What the agency has said

The sheriff's office announced the arrest through a community alert and a news conference, an approach agencies typically take when the person arrested is one of their own and the allegations are serious enough that public confidence is at stake.

The agency stated that Valverde was terminated in connection with the arrest, meaning he was separated from employment rather than placed on administrative leave pending resolution. That is a stronger step than agencies usually take at the arrest stage, when the criminal case has not been adjudicated.

The sheriff's office said the alleged victim is safe and is receiving necessary resources. Agencies generally do not release identifying details about minor victims, and Florida law restricts disclosure in cases involving alleged sexual offenses against children.

The characterization of the relationship as custodial is legally significant. Florida law treats offenses committed by a person in a position of familial or custodial authority over a minor as a distinct and more serious category, reflecting the additional element of trust and access.

The charges explained

Lewd and lascivious molestation under Florida law covers intentional touching in a sexual manner of a person under 16, or the forcing or enticing of a child to touch the offender. The offense is graded by the age of the child and the age of the offender, and for an adult offender against a younger child it is a first-degree felony carrying a potential sentence of up to life in prison.

Unlawful sexual activity with certain minors is a separate offense covering sexual activity between an adult 24 or older and a person 16 or 17 years old. It is a second-degree felony.

The charging decisions in a case like this typically follow from the alleged victim's age at the time of each alleged incident, which is why an allegation described as spanning a lengthy period can produce multiple charges under different statutes.

None of these charges establishes anything. They reflect probable cause, which is the standard for arrest, not the beyond-a-reasonable-doubt standard required for conviction. The case now moves to the State Attorney's Office for the Sixth Judicial Circuit, which serves Pasco and Pinellas counties, for a formal charging decision.

The prior internal investigation

The sheriff's office disclosed that Valverde had previously been the subject of an internal investigation regarding allegations of domestic abuse. The agency did not detail the outcome of that investigation in its public statements.

Internal affairs records for Florida law enforcement officers are public records once an investigation is complete, subject to certain exemptions, and the disposition of that prior matter is the kind of detail that typically emerges in subsequent reporting.

The relevance of prior complaints in cases like this is a recurring subject in law enforcement accountability discussions. An officer with a documented complaint history who later faces serious criminal allegations raises questions about whether earlier warning signs were adequately addressed, and Florida agencies vary considerably in how they handle sustained and unsustained internal findings.

Florida's Criminal Justice Standards and Training Commission maintains certification authority over sworn officers statewide and can revoke certification following a criminal conviction or certain sustained findings of misconduct.

Officer arrests in Florida in 2026

The Valverde case is one of several arrests of Florida law enforcement personnel this year, in a period when agencies have shown increasing willingness to announce arrests of their own officers publicly rather than handling them quietly.

In Jacksonville, Sheriff T.K. Waters announced in April the arrests of two active Jacksonville Sheriff's Office officers and one former officer in an overtime fraud investigation, in which arrest reports said cellphone data and radio records showed the officers were not on the job while claiming approximately $33,000 in overtime. In July, the agency sought termination of an officer after body camera footage showed him punching a handcuffed suspect during an arrest.

In May, a Jacksonville Sheriff's Office corrections officer was arrested in Manatee County on an attempted sexual battery charge. Also in May, two Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office deputies and a sergeant were arrested on charges including fraud by false statement by a public servant, with one deputy additionally charged with witness tampering, false imprisonment, and battery.

Public announcement of these cases represents a shift in practice. Agencies have historically been criticized for handling officer misconduct internally without public disclosure, and the pattern of news conferences and community alerts reflects a different institutional posture.

What happens next in the case

The State Attorney's Office for the Sixth Judicial Circuit will decide whether to file formal charges, what those charges will be, and whether the counts brought at arrest match the counts brought at filing. Prosecutors frequently adjust charging decisions after reviewing the full investigative file.

An arraignment follows, at which the defendant enters a plea. From there the case proceeds through discovery, pretrial motions, and either a negotiated resolution or trial. Cases of this type routinely take a year or longer to resolve.

Bond conditions in cases involving alleged sexual offenses against minors typically include no-contact provisions and restrictions on contact with minors generally.

Florida law provides substantial protections for child victims in the trial process, including provisions allowing testimony outside the physical presence of the defendant in certain circumstances.

How Florida certifies and decertifies officers

Sworn law enforcement officers in Florida are certified by the Criminal Justice Standards and Training Commission, which operates under the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Certification is a statewide credential, which means an officer who leaves one agency can generally be hired by another without recertifying.

That portability is why decertification matters. An officer terminated by one agency for misconduct but who retains certification can be hired elsewhere, a pattern documented nationally in research on officers who move between departments after separating under adverse circumstances.

The commission can revoke certification following a felony conviction, certain misdemeanor convictions, or a sustained finding of specified categories of misconduct. Agencies are required to report separations and the reasons for them, which feeds the state's ability to track officers across employers.

Florida also participates in the National Decertification Index, a database that allows agencies in participating states to check whether a prospective hire has been decertified elsewhere.

In this case, termination has occurred and the criminal case is pending. Certification action would ordinarily follow the resolution of the criminal matter rather than precede it.

Investigating an officer inside their own agency

Cases in which an agency investigates one of its own employees raise structural questions that agencies handle in varying ways. The concern is not usually deliberate protection but the practical difficulty of investigating colleagues, and the perception problem that follows any outcome.

Some Florida agencies refer investigations of their own personnel to an outside body, typically the Florida Department of Law Enforcement or a neighboring sheriff's office, specifically to remove that question. FDLE's Office of Executive Investigations handles matters involving public officials and law enforcement personnel.

Others investigate internally and rely on transparency to establish credibility, which is the approach reflected in the public news conference and community alert the Pasco Sheriff's Office issued.

The prosecution decision sits with the State Attorney's Office for the Sixth Judicial Circuit regardless of who investigates, which provides a check independent of the employing agency.

Florida's public records law makes internal affairs files available once an investigation concludes, subject to exemptions, which provides an additional avenue for outside scrutiny after the fact.

What it means for Pasco County

For residents, the agency's decision to announce the arrest publicly and to terminate the employee at the arrest stage is the accountability signal available at this point in the process. Whether the criminal case results in conviction is a separate question that will be resolved in court.

For families who interacted with the former corporal in his official capacity, the sheriff's office said the alleged conduct occurred off duty and involved a person known to him, which distinguishes this from a case involving abuse of official access to the public.

Residents with information relevant to the investigation can contact the Pasco Sheriff's Office. Anyone who suspects child abuse in Florida can report it to the Florida Abuse Hotline at 1-800-96-ABUSE, which operates around the clock.

The presumption of innocence applies. Valverde has been charged, not convicted, and the allegations against him remain allegations until a court resolves them.

The case will move slowly from here, as cases of this type do. Formal charging, arraignment, discovery, and either a plea or a trial will play out over a year or more, and the public record will develop as it goes. What is established now is narrow: an arrest, a termination, and a set of allegations that a court has not yet weighed.

Anyone with information relevant to this or any other case involving a child can contact the Pasco Sheriff's Office directly or call the statewide hotline.