{"id":365697,"date":"2026-08-07T22:56:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T22:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/365697\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T22:56:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T22:56:09","slug":"sexual-predator-gets-12-years-for-molesting-boy-in-dolphin-mall-bathroom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/365697\/","title":{"rendered":"Sexual predator gets 12 years for molesting boy in Dolphin Mall bathroom"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph\">MIAMI \u2014 A man arrested in 2025 after authorities said he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.local10.com\/news\/local\/2025\/01\/14\/man-accused-of-molesting-boy-in-dolphin-mall-bathroom-while-out-on-bond-on-child-rape-charge\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.local10.com\/news\/local\/2025\/01\/14\/man-accused-of-molesting-boy-in-dolphin-mall-bathroom-while-out-on-bond-on-child-rape-charge\/\">molested a 13-year-old boy<\/a> in a bathroom at the Dolphin Mall took a plea deal in Miami-Dade court on Friday, earning a 12 year prison sentence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Hunter Nicholas Hines, 37, of Pembroke Pines, was charged with attempted sexual battery and lewd and lascivious molestation of a child in connection with the Jan. 4, 2025 incident at the popular retail hub, located at 11401 NW 12th St. in Sweetwater.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">He\u2019ll also serve 15 years of sex offender probation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Investigators said Hines, then 35, approached the boy as he was washing his hands, grabbed him and \u201cescorted\u201d him into a stall. Investigators said Hines held the boy with one hand, pulled down his pants with the other and molested him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Authorities said the victim kicked Hines and escaped after he tried to perform oral sex on him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Hines did all this while out on bond for committing a similar crime on Florida\u2019s Treasure Coast on Nov. 7, 2022, when he was 33. It would earn him the status of sexual predator.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">In that case, Indian River County deputies said Hines victimized a 14-year-old boy with Asperger\u2019s syndrome whom he met through the app Grindr.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Deputies said Hines drove the teen to a neighborhood, then pulled down the boy\u2019s pants and began performing oral sex on him. He then forced the boy to perform the same act on him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Records show Hines pleaded no contest to three charges in that case, including child sexual battery, this May. In that case, he also received a 12-year sentence with 15 years of sex offender probation, with credit for time served.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">As part of his plea, an Indian River County judge signed an order declaring him a sexual predator.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Hines, prior to his legal troubles, was a microbiologist with a doctorate degree who gained a social media following for posts about his research.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Records show he was being held in Miami-Dade\u2019s Metrowest Detention Center as of Friday morning.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">It wasn\u2019t immediately clear whether his Miami-Dade sentence would run concurrently with his Indian River sentence.<\/p>\n<p>\ud83c\udfe0 News From Your Neighborhood<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-article-body__copyright\">Copyright 2026 by WPLG Local10.com &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI \u2014 A man arrested in 2025 after authorities said he molested a 13-year-old boy in a bathroom&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365698,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[225,227,226],"class_list":["post-365697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hialeah","tag-hialeah","tag-hialeah-headlines","tag-hialeah-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}