A Jacksonville firefighter is facing charges after authorities say he had sex with an underage girl against her will in Broward County.
Ladarius Lane-Berry, 25, was arrested Wednesday on charges of sexual assault and traveling to meet after luring a child, according to an arrest report.
He was being held on $17,500 bond Thursday, Broward jail records showed. It's unknown if he's hired an attorney.
A spokesman for Jacksonville Fire Rescue said Lane-Berry was placed on administrative paid leave.
According to the report, the girl told police she met Lane-Berry a year ago through a friend request on Facebook when she was 16 years old. She told him she was 16 and he said he was 24, the report said.
The teen said they exchanged text messages and had conversations about meeting up when he was in South Florida, the report said. The conversations were sexual in nature, with Lane-Berry asking the teen if she was a virgin and telling her how much she will love sex for the first time, the report said.
According to the report, the teen said she met up with Lane-Berry in May 2015, when he picked her up in front of her school in a blue Camaro. He told her to get in the back and lay down, then tried to have sex with her but she refused, the report said. She then got out of the car.
Local
In March, Lane-Berry asked to hang out with the teen at the beach and he again picked her up at school, the report said. While they were in his car, he kept trying to grab her before he parked in the parking lot of a Waffle House, the report said.
They got into the back seat and Lane-Berry had sex with her even though she told him several times to stop and was crying, the report said. The teen said after the incident she got a text message from Lane-Berry that said "sorry," the report said. The girl went to Davie Police to report the incident, the report said.
Lane-Berry once again sent a message to the teen that he wanted to see her, the report said. When he showed up at the address in Davie where he thought she would be waiting, Lane-Berry was taken into custody by police, the report said.
Police said Lane-Berry is from South Florida and graduated from Boyd Anderson High School in 2208.
