22-year-old man allegedly raped 14-year-old girl in church parking lot in Margate

MARGATE, Florida. – A then-21-year-old man met a 14-year-old girl at a Pompano Beach church and the two later began a relationship, authorities said. Recently released court documents say the man then raped her in the parking lot of another church.

Broward Sheriff’s Office officials arrested Deninesson Rivaldo Vernitus, 22, of Deerfield Beach on Monday on three counts of sexual abuse of children, according to agency jail records.

According to court documents released Thursday, Vernitus raped the girl in Margate in April.

The two met “earlier this year” at the unnamed church in Pompano Beach, an arrest warrant states. Police said he told her he was 18.

Margate Police Department Detective Megan Britt wrote that Vernitus and the girl met on April 27 to “hang out and get snacks.”

According to police, he eventually took her to the parking lot of First Christian Church (1107 NW 66th Ave.) and sexually assaulted her in the back seat of his car.

The arrest warrant states that Vernitus threatened to “expose her to his friends” if she did not have sexual intercourse with her, and he raped her when she told him to stop.

Authorities said the victim discovered blood on her dress at home. The warrant states that when she told her mother what happened, her mother told her “she would keep it a secret.”

“(The victim) believes her mother is protecting Vernitus because she knows his family,” Britt wrote.

However, the victim’s sister took action after she eventually learned of the incident, police said. The warrant states that she hatched a plan to lure Vernitus to her home on June 20 so they could call police.

In voice messages during a chat exchange, Vernitus could be heard saying in Haitian Creole that “what happened between the two was consensual and that he later found out that (the victim) was not old enough,” police said.

The next day, Vernitus was confronted by unidentified family members of the girl at his home on Northeast 44th Street in Deerfield Beach, authorities said.

“Vernitus attacked (redacted), knocked her down and ran away,” Britt wrote. “Vernitus (redacted) picked up the phone (accidentally) and left it on the ground outside behind (the house). (Redacted) picked up his phone and gave it to the police.”

Someone followed Vernitus to a grocery store, where officers made contact with him. He told a Creole-speaking officer that two unknown women had followed him, run him over with a car and taken his phone, but police said there was no evidence of a robbery.

At one point, a family member said she overheard a conversation between Vernitus and his victim in which he told her, “I knew you would come back for more,” the warrant states.

On July 16, two people contacted Margate police to inform them that Vernitus was no longer living at his Deerfield Beach home and was hiding with family members, and expressed concern that he was trying to flee the country, the warrant states.

Police said they learned that Vernitus, a Haitian citizen believed to be in the United States illegally, had attempted to leave the country four days earlier.

However, Vernitus was unable to leave the country before authorities arrested him on Monday.

He is being held without bail at the BSO’s Paul Rein Detention Facility on three counts of sexual abuse of a minor between the ages of 12 and 17 and is facing immigration deprivation.

According to court records, Broward Judge Michael Rothschild is overseeing the case.