An anonymous person tipped off federal authorities to allegations that a suspended Gresham police officer sexually abused an underage girl years earlier, according to testimony from a Monday court hearing.
The tip came in September years after the abuse. Oregon State Police Detective Joshua McNeely revealed the information during a preventative detention hearing for 36-year-old Hector Carranza, who joined the Gresham Police Department in 2014, the same year prosecutors say the alleged abuse began. Carranza was put on paid administrative leave in November.
Carranza allegedly engaged in sexual acts with the girl, now a 26-year-old adult, from when she was 14 until her 18th birthday in 2017, said Multnomah County Senior Deputy District Attorney Robin Skarstad. Carranza was about 24 when the alleged abuse began, Skarstad said.
Last month, Carranza was indicted on 56 counts that included rape, sexual abuse, luring a minor and encouraging child sexual abuse. Carranza has pleaded not guilty.
The girl, identified in court documents as S.R., testified to a grand jury along with her sister and one of her friends, Skarstad said.
A Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office investigator said Carranza met the girl on Tinder. She had said she was 18 and was asking for people to buy her alcohol, according to Heather Hughes, an investigator and former Portland police officer.
A couple of months later, the girl told Carranza she was underage. Hughes said Carranza was initially “kind of shocked” but said it was alright.
“To her she said he didn’t make it a big deal,” Hughes said. “She believed he was aware of her true age before they had been sexually intimate.”
In court, Skarstad introduced Snapchat exchanges between the girl and Carranza that she said showed he knew she was underage. He made references to when she was getting her driver’s license and asked if she was attending school.
“He acknowledges repeatedly he knows the relationship is wrong and makes attempts to hide it,” Skarstad said.
Prosecutors argued Carranza posed an ongoing public safety risk and asked that he be held in custody pending a trial.
Carranza’s attorney, Lawrence Taylor, argued that no evidence existed to show Carranza “made contact with or engaged in an inappropriate relationship with any minor” since 2017. And in the eight months since Carranza was suspended from his job, Taylor argued, “nothing happened that was untoward.”
Carranza remains on paid administrative leave with Gresham police. His annual salary is $103,814, according to city records.
Multnomah County Circuit Judge Melvin Oden-Orr denied prosecutors’ request for preventative detention. Carranza’s bail was set at $250,000 and jail records showed he was released Tuesday.
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