PANAMA CITY BEACH — A West Palm Beach man driving a taxi in Panama City Beach for Spring Break has been arrested and charged with sexual battery on two spring breakers.
Panama City Beach Police arrested Edgar Eduardo Lopez-Jaramillo, 22, Monday and charged him with sexual battery. The Bay County Sheriff’s Office did the same thing Tuesday for an attack that occurred early Monday.
According to the Sheriff’s Office:
Lopez-Jaramillo called his boss with CK Taxi Cab Company around 1:30 a.m. Monday and said he was going home sick, but instead he picked up a woman in the parking lot of a business on Thomas Drive. He drove her the opposite direction of her destination; when she objected he said he wanted to avoid traffic. The victim offered Lopez-Jaramillo all of her money to let her out of the cab when it became clear he would not take her to her hotel, but he told her to trust him and touched her.
The woman jumped out of the cab when Lopez-Jaramillo slowed at an intersection, but he ran after and forced her back into the van, where he pulled off her shorts and underwear and groped her as he drove. He stopped when he thought he saw a law enforcement vehicle, and the victim escaped the vehicle with her shorts and underwear in her hand.
She dropped her underwear, and investigators found it in the area where she said she had escaped. In the taxi, investigators found hair consistent with the victim’s, as well as items of her property.
Deputies charged Lopez-Jaramillo with sexual battery and kidnapping.
The Panama City Beach Police Department issues permits to taxi operators and conducts background checks on applicants. Lopez-Jaramillo, who had no arrest record in Bay County or West Palm Beach County, was issued a permit.
“We do disqualify some of them for various things,” Whitman said. Sex offenders and people who are wanted by law enforcement are disqualified, Whitman said.
On March 10, Lopez-Jaramillo allegedly picked up a woman around 3 a.m., drove her to a secluded spot on Front Beach Road and groped her. On Monday, PCBPD identified Lopez-Jaramillo as a driver for the company and sent his taxi driver permit photo, and five photos of men similar in appearance, to a detective at a college in Illinois, who showed them to the victim. The woman picked Lopez-Jaramillo out of the six photos as the man who victimized her.
During an interview with investigators, Lopez-Jaramillo admitted he had sexual contact with the woman, but he said it was consensual.
Lopez-Jaramillo was booked into the Bay County Jail to await a bond hearing Wednesday. It was not clear if he had retained the services of an attorney.