A Miami karate instructor was arrested after he was accused of molesting a 9-year-old girl, police said.
Darwin DeJesus Rojas-Frias, 58, was arrested Wednesday on a charge of lewd and lascivious molestation of a child under 12, an arrest report said.
According to the report, the 9-year-old girl was a student at Showakai Karate-Do USA on Southwest 88th Street.
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On Sept. 29, the girl was having a one-on-one karate session with Rojas-Frias with her mother present, but after the session, the girl told her mother that Rojas-Frias had taken her to a small closet that was out of the view of the mother, the report said.
She said once they were inside the closet, he grabbed one of her hands and put it inside his pants and told her to squeeze his genitalia, the report said.
Rojas-Frias was taken into custody the same day and admitted to taking the girl inside the closet but denied the allegation, the report said.
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He was free to leave while awaiting the victim's forensic interview but on Monday, the girl was forensically interviewed and gave the same statement she gave her mother, the report said.
Rojas-Frias was taken into custody again and again denied the allegations, the report said.
Rojas-Frias was booked into jail, where he was being held without bond Thursday, records showed. Attorney information wasn't available.
A parent who owns the shop next to the karate center said he couldn't believe the instructor would do something like this.
"It is shocking, but still I doubt he would do that. He was a nice person," Rubesh Darda said.
NBC6 learned Rojas-Frias has been at the current location for around six months, but has been teaching for more than a decade, according to his company's website.
Miami-Dade Police said they're still investigating and looking for any other potential victims.
