Former Broward JROTC instructor arrested again in decades-old rape case
A 77-year-old former JROTC instructor was arrested by Broward Sheriff’s Office in a decades-old rape case, his second sexual-battery arrest tied to a student.
Broward Sheriff’s Office arrested a 77-year-old former JROTC instructor on allegations that he repeatedly raped a former student more than 20 years ago. The arrest marks his second sexual-battery case and puts renewed focus on how school-based military programs are monitored after accusations surface.
The allegations reach back more than two decades, but the latest arrest brings the case back into Broward County’s criminal justice system now. The suspect, a former JROTC instructor, was taken into custody by Broward Sheriff’s Office on charges tied to repeated sexual assaults involving a former student.
The Broward case fits a pattern that has played out in South Florida schools before. In February 2021, police arrested Israel Gonzalez, then 56, a teacher and Navy JROTC instructor at Royal Palm Beach Community High School, after officers said he asked a student to “make out” inside a classroom on campus. In October 2024, another Miami-Dade JROTC instructor was arrested after allegations of an inappropriate relationship with a student.
Those local arrests are part of a broader record that has drawn attention in Washington. A 2022 U.S. House of Representatives document titled Sexual Abuse of Teens in the Military’s J.R.O.T.C. Program cited a New York Times investigation into abuse allegations in JROTC programs. The document underscores that concerns about misconduct in these programs have extended beyond one county and into federal scrutiny.
Broward County schools have not been immune from the risks that come with placing adults in close, daily contact with teenagers in military-style instruction settings. The latest arrest adds a decades-old case to a larger pattern of allegations involving educators and JROTC instructors across Florida, where school campuses have repeatedly become the setting for investigations that should have never had to be reopened years later.
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