Florida home health aide accused of molesting 86-year-old he was caring for
TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — A home health aid is accused of molesting an 86-year-old disabled woman he was caring for.
NBC affiliate WTVJ reported that 39-year-old Juan Jose Romero Ruiz was arrested Wednesday and faces charges of sexual battery and lewd lascivious molestation of an elderly disabled person.
Family members told police that the victim has dementia and poor short-term memory. The family hired Ruiz, who worked for Pembroke Pines-based Lovable Family Home Care, to tend to the woman's basic needs, such as cleaning and companionship.
Retired Sarasota ROTC teacher charged with inappropriately touching students
WTVJ reported that Ruiz started working for the victim on Tuesday. An arrest report stated that the victim's grandson checked surveillance footage and saw Ruiz molesting his grandmother.
He immediately alerted family members of the incident. He also called Ruiz's company and demanded that Ruiz be removed from the home.
Police said that the grandson also found footage from the day before of Ruiz sexually battering the victim.
'The fact that this guy acted on his impulse was, for lack of a better word, within hours of arriving at the home, indicates to me at least, this is most likely not his first time doing this,' said Anthony Bruno, the victim's family attorney told WTVJ.
Officers said they detained Ruiz at the company's Pembroke Pines office. He is being held with no bond at Broward County jail and an immigration hold.
'My understanding is (the victim) is doing well, all things considered, I can't advise us to whether she can fully comprehend what occurred to her given her condition,' Bruno said. 'The family is obviously traumatized.'
Lovable Family Home Care told the news station that it is fully cooperating with law enforcement officers.
'We are both saddened and in shock about this very unfortunate situation. As an agency in the community for the past 12 years, we have been working hard and strive to always give our members the best care,' the statement said in part. 'We have limited information and since this is an ongoing investigation, no further details can be provided.'
The Sunrise Police Department said it is determining if there are additional victims. Anyone who may have had similar experiences or additional information is asked to call police at 954-746-3499.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Politico
an hour ago
- Politico
Meet the judge overseeing the Trump National Guard case: Justice Breyer's brother
Gov. Gavin Newsom's lawsuit against President Donald Trump over the deployment of the National Guard to Los Angeles is in the hands of a federal judge who is the younger brother of retired Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer. U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer, a former Watergate prosecutor nominated to the bench by Bill Clinton in 1997, was assigned to Newsom's case Tuesday, a day after California officials sued to reverse Trump's order. California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in San Francisco, citing the presence of his and other state offices in that city as justification for the choice of venue. Breyer is one of 13 judges in that courthouse and was assigned the case through a random process overseen by the court clerk. Breyer, who attended Harvard before getting his law degree from the University of California, Berkeley, was confirmed by unanimous consent in the Senate and has served as a judge in the San Francisco-based federal court since. Notably, Trump himself nominated Breyer in 2018 for a second term on the U.S. Sentencing Commission. Breyer, 83, will decide whether Trump had the legal authority to federalize 4,000 California National Guard troops amid street protests over the administration's immigration raids in Los Angeles. Newsom argues that the move was unlawful because Trump bypassed a requirement to coordinate with the governor's office and called up the troops over Newsom's objection. In a 2023 appearance at the Supreme Court alongside his brother, Breyer recalled that he was a local prosecutor during unrest in the Bay Area in the 1960s and 1970s but pressed on with his day-to-day work. 'I was an assistant district attorney. There were riots in San Francisco, over Vietnam over at San Francisco State, close it down,' Charles Breyer said. 'You did your task, which didn't mean that you weren't aware of what was going on or not sensitive to what was going on or tried to understand what was going on, but it meant you had a task.' In 2008, at a public talk alongside other former Watergate figures, Breyer said the Nixon-era scandal proved the value of the Constitution — and in particular, the First Amendment protections for those who 'speak out against the government.' 'We were told from Day One, why are you doing this? You're tearing down the presidency. You're making it very difficult for the president of the United States to discharge his obligations,' Breyer recalled. 'And our answer really was that the Constitution was set up … to allow an examination of the way our government operates. And that's what happened.'

Miami Herald
2 hours ago
- Miami Herald
Telegram Messenger's Ties to Russia's FSB Revealed in New Report
The Telegram messaging app may have ties to Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), according to an investigation. Independent Russian investigative outlet IStories said it has uncovered evidence suggesting that the platform's server infrastructure is maintained by companies who have collaborated with Russian intelligence services, raising significant concerns about potential government surveillance. Responding to a request for comment, Telegram's head of Press and Media Relations Remi Vaughn said in a statement to Newsweek: "As a global company, Telegram has contracts with dozens of different service providers around the world. However, none of these service providers have access to Telegram data or sensitive infrastructure. "All Telegram servers belong to Telegram and are maintained by Telegram employees. Unauthorized access is impossible. Throughout its entire history, Telegram never disclosed any private messages to a third party - and its encryption has never been breached." In another auto-message sent after reaching out for comment, Telegram said: "Telegram is committed to protecting user privacy and human rights such as freedom of speech and assembly. It has played a prominent role in pro-democracy movements around the world, including in Iran, Russia, Belarus, Myanmar and Hong Kong. "Pavel Durov is the founder, owner and CEO of Telegram. He left Russia in 2014, after losing control of his previous company for refusing to hand over the data of Ukrainian protesters to security agencies. Pavel Durov lives in Dubai and holds a dual citizenship of the United Arab Emirates and France." Telegram has long held a reputation as a secure messaging app, and it is used globally by journalists, activists, and ordinary users seeking privacy. Its founder, Russian-born Pavel Durov, who was detained by French authorities in August 2024, has cultivated an image that the platform protects digital privacy. The IStories report challenges that image by linking the platform to Russia's FSB, which jails individuals critical of the Kremlin and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Telegram's infrastructure is managed by Global Network Management (GNM), a small firm registered in Antigua and Barbuda, which provides the platform with over 10,000 IP addresses, according to IStories. GNM's owner, Russian national Vladimir Vedeneyev, previously testified in a U.S. court that he has employees based in Russia. IStories also found that Vedeneyev serves as Telegram's chief financial officer. Many of these IP addresses were previously owned by Globalnet, a St. Petersburg-based telecommunications operator. IStories reported that Globalnet has connections to the Kremlin and Russian intelligence services, including the FSB. Electrontelecom, a St. Petersburg-based company, also reportedly provided Telegram with another 5,000 IP addresses, according to IStories, which identified the firm as an FSB contractor. Electrontelecom has provided services for the installation and maintenance of "a complex system for transmitting classified information from fixed facilities operated by the FSB's Directorate for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, which is used to carry out operational investigative activities," it said. The investigation comes days after Russian human rights NGO First Department warned that the FSB had gained access to Russians' communication with Ukrainian Telegram channels, which provide vital updates and reporting on Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. "We know that by the time the defendants in cases of 'state treason' are detained, the FSB is already in possession of their correspondence. And the fact that neither defendants nor a lawyer are named in the main case allows the FSB to hide how exactly it goes about gaining access to that correspondence," First Department said. First Department head Dmitry Zair-Bek said that material from Telegram had already been used as evidence in "a significant number of cases." "On most cases, they have been accessed due to compromised devices. ... However, there are also cases in which no credible technical explanations consistent with known access methods can be identified," he said, Novaya Gazeta reported. "This could indicate either the use of undisclosed cyber espionage tools or Telegram's cooperation with the Russian authorities, obvious signs of which we see in a number of other areas," Zair-Bek added. Cybersecurity expert Michał Woźniak told IStories that beyond storing decrypted messages, Telegram also attaches a unique device identifier to each message sent on the platform, known as auth_key_id, which can determine where a user is located and reveal their IP addresses. "If someone has access to Telegram traffic and cooperates with Russian intelligence services, this means that the device identifier becomes a really big problem-a tool for global surveillance of messenger users, regardless of where they are and what server they connect to," Woźniak said. Telegram has not commented publicly on the investigation or the allegations. The company is being paid $300 million to roll out Elon Musk's Grok chatbot on the messaging app. "This summer, Telegram users will gain access to the best AI technology on the market. @elonmusk and I have agreed to a 1-year partnership to bring xAI's @grok to our billion+ users and integrate it across all Telegram apps," Durov announced on May 28. Related Articles Russia Expands Military Cooperation with North KoreaIsrael Denies Envoy's Claim of Patriot Defenses Given to UkraineNATO Ally Scraps Purchase of US Black Hawk Helicopters'Trump Is Losing,' Putin's Top Propagandist Says 2025 NEWSWEEK DIGITAL LLC.


Miami Herald
2 hours ago
- Miami Herald
Newly adopted dog vanished for a month in NH. Then heartbroken family got a call
A newly adopted dog went missing for a month – then she was spotted in a bush, a New Hampshire shelter said. Harper had just been adopted before she 'bolted' when the car door opened at her new home, according to a June 8 Facebook post by the Granite State Dog Recovery. She came back the same day but left again and didn't return for 32 days, staff members at the Hooksett-based shelter said. Over the course of her month-long time 'on the run,' she had been seen six times but crew had 'zero luck' in capturing her, staff said. After two weeks of no calls, a family told Nottingham Animal Control that a dog had been seen – it was a 'real time sighting' of Harper, staff said. She was seen laying in a bush behind their home but the area didn't allow for a trap to be placed, officials said. Harper's family was out of state so a team member used a liquid smoke rag and Vienna sausages to hopefully lure Harper out, officials said. As soon as Harper smelled the liquid smoke, she 'lifted her head,' officials said. After a few pieces of sausage were thrown, Harper slowly came out of the bushes, 'quilled' and 'exhausted,' before eventually eating from the crew member's hand, officials said. She was limping and full of ticks and although she lost a few pounds, she still weighed in at 58 pounds, the crew said. Her owners were reunited with her after returning from Massachusetts, and they drove her to an emergency vet where she began her recovery before being scheduled to head home as of June 8, the crew said. Nottingham is about a 30-mile drive southeast from Concord.