Collier Co. sheriff candidate accused of child abuse, sexual battery
Long-time police officer Carlos Gutierrez was accused of viciously punishing a child, as well as allegations that he molested a young girl.
“I understand what they are talking about. However, you also have to understand that you are innocent until proven guilty,” said Gutierrez.
He blames a nasty divorce and expected the dirty laundry to be brought up during his run for sheriff. But whether the allegations are true or false, at this point, parents say it doesn’t matter.
“I believe the sheriff has the ultimate responsibility of keeping our children safe,” said parent Gary Howell. “I don’t want anyone around our youth that shouldn’t be. Well if he is running for something to do with the county, that’s pretty scary if he has those kind of charges against him.”
Right now, Carlos Gutierrez is a police officer at Sea Ranch Lakes on the east coast.
“They need to have a good track record in order to be in that kind of position,” said parent Ann Gomez.
Now, he wants votes for Collier County sheriff.
“Like I said, when you’re not guilty of anything, when you haven’t done it, you have nothing to fear,” Gutierrez said.
Back in 2012, he was accused of child abuse, including forcing a 10-year-old to eat dog food, and in 2014, for inappropriately touching a young girl. In the 2014 report, a fourth-grade girl reported Gutierrez sexually abused her, but he told us it didn’t happen.
“This is stuff that happens, allegations can fly all the time. The bottom line is, are they true? And in both cases as you see, they are not,” he said.
Gutierrez was asked to take a lie detector test to these claims but refused after taking advice from his attorney.
The state attorney’s office could not find enough evidence to file charges in either case. Now with both criminal cases dropped, the Collier sheriff candidate is fighting in civil court.
“I think that the evidence, the physical evidence that I will bring forward will completely clear me.”
We asked how his relationship is with his children now but would not tell us. He also says he doesn’t think these allegations will hurt his shot at his campaign.
Right now, Gutierrez is the only person registered to run for sheriff, but candidates have until June 24 to file their paperwork.
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I give him the benefit of the doubt that these are false allegations from a nasty divorce and he is 100% correct that we are supposed to be innocent until proven guilty. Lets see how that works for him! Maybe from now on he will look at suspects a little more fairly … one can only hope
Karen, I agree (although I, myself, received no such benefit).
my earlier comment was a sarcastic one meant to expose the hypocrisy of the pro-registration argument. I’ve been called “the worst-of-the-worst” publically by the Sheriff of my county (who I actually think is a good Sheriff). While I will not argue that I was behaving badly, certainly being caught in a sting operation during a time in my life when I was having an emotional breakdown far from qualifies me as the “worst” of anything.
If applied across the board; those who commit crimes, regardless of the severity; are the same as all others who commit crimes (regardless of the severity) then all law enforcement officers should be outed to the public community to keep those in the community safe.
Of course, that’s ridiculous, unjustified, and irresponsible, but that’s my point about the SO register.
More reason to have a registry of law enforcement officers to keep the community safe.