A man charged with kidnapping and sexually molesting a juvenile in Brookhaven remains behind bars.
Jose Bermudez, 47, of Decatur, was arrested March 10 by the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office and charged with child molestation, burglary and kidnapping. He is currently being held at the DeKalb County Jail on $60,000 bond.
The arrest followed an investigation begun in January by the Brookhaven Police Department into allegations from a juvenile living on Georgian Terrace that Bermudez forced himself into her house and sexually assaulted her.
The victim told police Bermudez came to her house unannounced the afternoon of Jan. 2 and when she told Bermudez her mother was not home he forced the door open and pushed her into a bedroom, according to the police report. Bermudez then allegedly ripped the juvenile’s clothes off and sexually assaulted her, according to the police report.
Bermudez fled the scene and the victim took a shower before calling her mother and sister and then going to a neighbor’s house to call 911, according to the report.
The victim and her mother told police they know the suspect and that a similar incident had happened in 2015 but was not reported. They were able to give police a description and cell phone number and they also told police he was a part-time Uber driver, according to the police report.
Records show that federal immigration authorities are seeking to arrest Bermudez as well. Bryan Cox, spokesperson for the southern region of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), said ICE has put a detainer of Bermudez because he is not in the country legally.
Cox explained that the ICE detainer does not take precedence over DeKalb prosecution of Bermudez.
“An ICE detainer in no way impacts the criminal prosecution,” he said. Rather, the detainer asks DeKalb County law enforcement officials to turn Bermudez over to ICE authorities when they are finished with the prosecution.