{"id":414077,"date":"2026-09-29T21:16:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T21:16:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/414077\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T21:16:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T21:16:13","slug":"ex-miami-dade-college-professor-arrested-on-child-sex-charges-deputies-say-nbc-6-south-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/414077\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Miami Dade College professor arrested on child sex charges, deputies say \u2013 NBC 6 South Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"

A former Miami Dade College professor arrested in July after he was found with a missing 15-year-old girl has been re-arrested on child sex charges, authorities said.<\/p>\n

Richard Tapia, 46, was originally arrested in July after the girl’s mother had reported that her runaway daughter was at a hotel in Palm Coast with an adult man, Flagler County Sheriff’s Office officials said.<\/p>\n

The teen was found leaving the hotel from the back stairwell while Tapia was found exiting the front lobby, authorities said.<\/p>\n

Body camera footage released by the sheriff’s office showed him being placed in handcuffs in the hotel lobby.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Body<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tFlagler County Sheriff’s OfficeFlagler County Sheriff’s Office<\/p>\n

Body camera footage from the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office shows the July 22, 2026 arrest of Richard Tapia.<\/p>\n

Investigators determined Tapia had met the teen through an online app and picked her up in Jacksonville before driving her to Palm Coast.<\/p>\n

At the time, Tapia was charged with interference with child custody, but a sexual assault investigating began after the teen told deputies Tapia had raped her multiple times at the hotel, authorities said.<\/p>\n

A sexual assault kit was sent to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and after forensic testing confirmed Tapia\u2019s DNA was present, a warrant was issued last week for Tapia for three counts of lewd or lascivious battery on a victim between the age of 12 and 16 years old, the sheriff’s office said.<\/p>\n

Tapia was arrested in Palm Beach County and brought to Flagler County, where he was being held on a $350,000 bond.<\/p>\n

“This mother\u2019s determination helped us find her daughter which started the investigation on this pervert,” Flagler Sheriff Rick Staly said in a statement Tuesday. “Our detectives followed the evidence and built a strong case against this predator who took advantage of a vulnerable child.”<\/p>\n

According to his LinkedIn profile, Tapia worked at Miami Dade College starting in 2010 and was a professor of political science. He was fired after his arrest, the college’s student newspaper reported.<\/a><\/p>\n

The sheriff’s office believes there may be other victims and are asking anyone with information to call them at 386-393-4911.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former Miami Dade College professor arrested in July after he was found with a missing 15-year-old girl…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":414078,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[28,225,227,226],"class_list":["post-414077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hialeah","tag-florida","tag-hialeah","tag-hialeah-headlines","tag-hialeah-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414077","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=414077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}