![\"Miami](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/IMG_IMG_IAC_Building_931_3_1_EKE5P8B3_L406876642.JPG\" "\\"Miami")
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Miami Dade College Eduardo J. Padron InterAmerican Campus.<\/p>\n
Special to the Miami Herald<\/p>\n
A longtime political science professor at Miami Dade College was arrested last month in a Flagler County hotel for \u201cinterference with custody of minor,\u201d a felony crime, after the girl\u2019s mother claimed he transported her from Jacksonville to a Palm Coast hotel.<\/p>\n
An arrest report from July 22 identifies Richard \u201cRick\u201d Tapia as having allegedly met a minor child on an app and taken her from Jacksonville to a hotel along I-95 in Palm Coast, the largest city in Flagler County, about 290 miles north of Miami.<\/p>\n
Tapia has pleaded not guilty and demanded a jury trial. Neither he nor his attorney in the case would comment when contacted by the Herald.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson with Miami Dade College, where Tapia worked for more than 15 years, told the Herald Friday afternoon that the institution is aware of Tapia\u2019s arrest and that he is no longer employed there.<\/p>\n
According to the report, the girl\u2019s mother contacted the local police department after her daughter told her of her whereabouts, and said that family members were able to ping her exact location. She told police \u201cher daughter was with \u2018a grown\u2019 man.\u201d<\/p>\n
While on the phone with police, the mother said \u201cshe heard a man telling her, \u2018To get out the room,\u2019\u201d the responding officer wrote in the report.<\/p>\n
The girl was found in the back stairwell and police found Tapia in the main hotel lobby, according to the report. Tapia remained silent during the arrest.<\/p>\n
Tapia\u2019s clothing and cell phone were seized for evidence. Police wrote in the report that \u201cthere is a pending investigation referencing a sex offense.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tapia began working at Miami Dade College in 2010, gaining tenure in 2013, according to his LinkedIn profile<\/a>.<\/p>\n He has also been involved in local politics, as both a candidate and a member of community boards.<\/p>\n In 2018, he ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination<\/a> to replace former state Rep. Manny Diaz, Jr<\/a>. in House District 103, falling to one-term representative Cindy Polo.<\/p>\n He also dropped out of a race for the District 6 school board seat, and ran unsuccessfully for a Miami City Commission seat in 2001, when he was just 21 years old.<\/p>\n Tapia has also been a member of Miami-Dade County\u2019s Planning Advisory Board.<\/p>\n Prior to last month\u2019s arrest, Tapia had no criminal record beyond traffic violations.<\/p>\n According to Flagler County Court records, Tapia\u2019s arraignment is scheduled for Aug. 25.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Miami Dade College Eduardo J. Padron InterAmerican Campus. Special to the Miami Herald A longtime political science professor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365746,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-365745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365745","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=365745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365745\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}