EUSTIS, Fla. – A Eustis man is accused of giving a 14-year-old girl drugs, having sex with her and then allowing others to do the same while she was intoxicated.
Officials from the Eustis Police Department arrested John Pedro Quashie Saturday on charges of sexual battery and resisting an officer without violence. Police said Quashie met the victim when she ran away from her group home in Ocala on or around Feb. 14. Police were called on Feb. 15 when the girl was taken to a hospital.
According to the arrest affidavit, the girl met three people at the Family Dollar on 1309 East Orange Avenue after having run away. The girl talked to and "became comfortable" with the three and eventually walked with them to a house belonging to a man named Poppie, who police have identified as Quashie, according to the affidavit.
Angel Bivens lives across the street from the home. She said the people who used to live there have since moved out, but still fears for her own 13-year-old daughter.
"I really wish something would have been said or I would have been notified so I could have helped protect her more and not been so vulnerable," Bivens said.
The home often had both adults and children coming and going, Bivens said. She described the family as "rowdy."
"They were kind of an eyesore so we would stray away," she said.
Police said that the young girl and the adults went to an apartment-like shed in the house's backyard and consumed MDMA. After taking the drugs, the girl told police she then had sex with Quashie and another man named Red. Officers said Quashie and Red then exchanged money with one of the men who brought the girl to the shed.
After having sex with Quashie and Red, the girl said she was raped by three more men over the course of that night and the next day, all while high on MDMA and another drug known as "concrete," according to police. Authorities said least one of the men exchanged money after raping the girl.
Eventually, the girl was dropped back off at the Family Dollar, where the manager arranged for her to get a ride to Ocoee to stay with her ex-boyfriend, according to the affidavit. When she arrived in Ocoee, she was taken to the hospital.
Police said a rape kit was completed on the girl on Feb. 15. Officers said he kit was submitted for analysis on Feb. 27 to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which matched Quashie's DNA to that in the kit on May 18.
Quashie's home does have a small apartment in its backyard, just like the one the girl described to authorities, according to police. Officers said that they eventually determined that probable cause existed to arrest Quashie.
Quashie's cousin Cederic Wilkerson came to his defense and said Quashie has children of his own.
"I feel like he would never do that," Wilkerson said. "Not the person I know. That's my little cousin. I feel like he wouldn't ever, ever do that."
A police K-9 found Quashie hiding in the closet of his girlfriend's home on the 500 block of Glover Street when police came to arrest him, according to the affidavit. He is currently being held in the Lake County Jail on $26,000 bond.