JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — (Note: The video above is from a previous report.)
A Jacksonville Sheriff’s Officer facing three felony counts related to sexually soliciting a child online had a history of citizen complaints that raised serious concerns about his conduct.
Officer Alejandro Carmona was arrested last week for allegedly sending nude pictures and videos to a 16-year-old boy. He was suspended without pay as the criminal investigation continues. He has pleaded not guilty.
Following his arrest, JSO released Carmona’s job history, showing 28 discipline issues in his 15 years with JSO – half of them sustained by investigators. Because the discipline summary contains no details, First Coast News requested the Internal Affairs investigations in several recent cases.
All nominally involve Carmona’s failure to activate his body-worn camera as required by JSO policy. But behind the administrative violations are complaints that raise serious concerns. The complaints range from rudeness to road rage to downplaying domestic violence, and show ordinary citizens found Carmona's conduct worrisome.
“The officer was yelling so loud he had spit coming out of his mouth (not wearing a mask) and tears in his eyes. I was in fear because the officer would not calm down, even though I apologized twice,” wrote one elderly man in a March 2021 complaint.
An alleged domestic violence victim in May 2020 described Carmona as “rude and dismissive.” She said “he refused to come inside my house and look and my damages and he refused to assist me with asking my boyfriend to leave my house."
She continued, "He refused to give me a police report copy for my records and I wasn’t given resources for being a domestic violence victim.” After the officer left, she said, “I was attacked again by my boyfriend."
In a third complaint from July 2019, a man said he was driving behind Carmona when the officer slammed on his brakes, then pulled him over for speeding, even they were both traveling at the same speed. The man claimed Carmona told him he was allowed to speed because “he was in a police car and was exempt.”
In each of these cases, investigators were hamstrung by the fact that Carmona failed to turn on his body camera, as required.
In the case of the elderly driver, Carmona acknowledged he'd been angry.
“I was upset with him because he almost crashed into me. He was apologetic. I thanked him for being apologetic. And that's, you know, after I calmed down a little bit and recovered some," he told investigators. He acknowledged that he didn't activate his body-worn camera and that he failed to "log out" -- alerting dispatch that he was engaging in a traffic stop.
In the case of the man driving behind Carmona, investigators said Carmona “stated he would routinely exceed the posted speed limit to see who would attempt to follow and ‘keep up with’ him.” The report noted that was a violation of state law and JSO policy. Carmona “argued he was exempt from the law because he was in his police vehicle and conducing a police activity,” according to the report. As in the other traffic stop, Carmona admitted that he did not turn on his body-worn camera or log out as required.
Regarding the alleged domestic violence victim, it doesn't appear investigators ever asked Carmona about her claims. The report says, “due to the lack of BWC footage … Internal Affairs was unable to corroborate (her) allegations.”
Carmona previously made headlines as being the initial officer in what became a confrontation ending with a woman’s teeth getting broken. Carmona was placed on emergency suspension without pay, declining to resign. JSO is now seeking to terminate him.
First Coast News reached out to JSO and to some of the citizen complainants and will update this story when they respond.