Former Corpus Christi police officer convicted on charge of enticement of a minor
A U.S. district court has convicted a former Corpus Christi Police Department officer of coercing a 15-year-old girl to have sex with him.
Daniel Abelardo Verduzco, 32, entered a plea of guilty on May 16 to one count of enticement of a minor, according to records from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas.
U.S. District Judge David S. Morales found Verduzco guilty on May 23 and ordered a presentence investigation report to be prepared by the U.S. Probation Office.
Morales accepted the plea on June 9.
Verduzco is scheduled to appear for sentencing on Aug. 21.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security agents notified the Corpus Christi Police Department that they had arrested Verduzco on Jan. 19 in Nueces County.
Police in Tulsa, Oklahoma, began investigating Verduzco on Jan. 8 after a concerned parent told them that she thought her daughter was involved in a relationship with a Corpus Christi police officer.
The mother looked at her daughter's Snapchat account and found photo messages between her daughter and a user known as 'Danny' inside of a police cruiser with a computer mount and laptop that revealed sensitive information about police calls and notes about the police calls, the Caller-Times previously reported.
Tulsa police found that the girl and the Snapchat user had exchanged more than 3,700 messages, which included photos of the girl's breasts and videos and photos of her in sexually suggestive poses and outfits, according to a criminal complaint filed on Jan. 18 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas.
The teenager's mother said that at the time she believed 'Danny' to be the same age as her daughter, the complaint showed. However, her daughters confirmed that 'Danny' was a police officer, she said.
Verduzco is no longer employed with the city of Corpus Christi, Lt. Eryca Gonzalez of the Corpus Christi Police Department confirmed on June 16. The department previously placed Verduzco on administrative leave after the investigation began in January.
Gonzalez said the police department fully cooperated with the investigation, which was led by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, but did not comment further on the case.
(This story was updated to add new information.)
More: How can I learn more about sex offenders in my area? Nueces County has a tool for that
More: Two individuals charged in crimes involving sex trafficking, solicitation of minors
This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: Former Corpus Christi officer convicted of sexually coercing minor
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