SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. – Charges have been dropped against a former Seminole County Sheriff’s Office employee who was arrested in a prostitution sting. Now, he’s demanding accountability from Sheriff Dennis Lemma.
The former employee, Leroy Green, resigned from his position after he and two other men were arrested in May, accused of soliciting sexual services from undercover agents.
Charges have also already been dropped against Harold Mills, who was among the two other arrests and resigned from his role as a UCF trustee in the days following the sheriff’s office’s initial statements on the matter. A spokesperson for the sheriff’s office told News 6 in May, “We will let the documents speak for themselves.”
News 6 is currently working to verify whether the third man arrested, Jairo Areis, still faces charges in the sting.
News 6 has reached out to the sheriff’s office for comment. A spokesperson for the agency emailed the arrest report and report of investigation, saying the agency would let the reports speak for themselves.
The reports detail text messages sent between the undercover agent and another person, purportedly Green, arranging to meet at a park. The report states that the agent met the suspect at his vehicle, and the man unzipped his pants in preparation for oral sex. Units then moved in to arrest the suspect.
Green participated in a news conference Friday alongside his attorney and his fiancé to call for accountability and to clear his name.
“I am a father, a son, but above all I am a man of God. I can assure you there is no truth related to any of these allegations made by the agents involved in this operation. I would never jeopardize losing my two children after just recently having won a year-and-a-half-long custody battle. I would never compromise my career, my relationship, or do anything that would be contrary to my religious beliefs,” Green said in a prepared statement. “Today I stand here with strength and with confidence to take my reputation back because I know that with God’s grace, I have been vindicated. As for the rest, Romans 12:19 says, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay saith the Lord.’”
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Phillip Arroyo, Green’s attorney, said it was among the saddest parts of the criminal justice system that irreversible damage is often done to an accused individual’s reputation when media coverage falters upon them being found innocent as opposed to the comparatively significant coverage when such allegations are first made.
“As a result, irreparable harm is inflicted on an innocent person’s reputation, so I’d like to thank each member of the media present here today. We are blessed to live in a great country where you are presumed innocent until proven guilty. In Mr. Green’s case, Liberty and Freedom prevailed. I am excited to watch him go on to do great things in his life,” Arroyo said.
Green went on to request that Sheriff Lemma take corrective action against the officers who were involved in his arrest, who he says “were not in keeping with the organizational values and philosophy of the sheriff’s office.”
“Instead, they were extremely unprofessional and unethical, lacking integrity and character. Their approach was excessive and desperate to make an arrest worthy of a good story at all costs. There is absolutely nothing to justify the malicious actions nor the drastic steps that were taken on that day. What hurts the most is that after so many years of working in a law enforcement agency under a sheriff that I respected so much, my perception of law enforcement was forcibly tainted,” Green said.
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