Inset: Justine Lopez-Rodriguez (Pasco County Sheriff's Office). Background: The Florida school where Justine Lopez-Rodriguez worked as a resource officer before being fired after allegedly sending flirtatious messages to a 13-year-old girl (Google Maps).
A Florida cop lost his job as a sheriff's deputy and school resource officer after being accused of taking a Snapchat photo of "skeletal remains" and sending it to a 13-year-old student. He won't face any further punishment, according to court records.
Justine Lopez-Rodriguez, 32, was arrested on March 13 and charged with felony evidence tampering in connection with the dead body photo. The case was dropped Thursday, but not before it led to Lopez-Rodriguez being removed from his position and security detail job at Pinecrest Academy Wesley Chapel, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
A spokesperson told the newspaper that Lopez-Rodriguez, who worked as a deputy with the Pasco County Sheriff's Office, was immediately fired after his arrest.
The student allegedly came forward and told school officials that Lopez-Rodriguez added her on the Snapchat app "sometime in late January 2026 or February 2026" and began messaging the girl, according to an arrest affidavit viewed by Law&Crime.
"The juvenile stated she had first seen the defendant at school, where he was present in his capacity as a law enforcement officer, and later realized the same person had added her on Snapchat," the affidavit said. "The juvenile stated the communications continued over a period of weeks and occurred regularly. The juvenile described the conversations as initially involving general topics such as food, basketball, working out, and other casual discussion."
On March 1, Lopez-Rodriguez allegedly messaged the girl a photo "depicting what appeared to be a body lying on the ground in a wooded area," according to the affidavit.
"She described seeing a river, and described seeing a rib cage and clothing, including what she recalled as a red shirt and blue pants," the document alleged. "The juvenile stated the image appeared to be taken during the daytime and in a forested area."
Based on the girl's description of the image and the date received, police investigators "recognized the scene" that she described as being consistent with a recent "skeletal remains investigation," per the affidavit. Investigators allegedly knew that Lopez-Rodriguez had been present during the initial law enforcement response and was the "primary deputy" at the scene.
Lopez-Rodriguez was asked about the image involving the human remains. He stated that he had told the girl he was at a call involving a body, but he initially denied sending any photographs of the remains, according to the affidavit. Investigators allegedly requested to look at Lopez-Rodriguez's phone and three photos were found on it of the body in question.
"When confronted with the images the defendant admitted that he had taken the photographs and stated that he had sent a skeletal remains image to his wife," the affidavit alleged. "The defendant further stated that he could not recall whether he had sent the images to the juvenile but acknowledged that it was possible the juvenile may have received the images."
Lopez-Rodriguez allegedly admitted to deleting the Snapchat app from his phone. As a result, he was arrested and charged with evidence tampering "based on the timing of the deletion" and his "knowledge that a criminal investigation was underway" about the body photos, according to the affidavit.
Court records show that Lopez-Rodriguez's case was dropped Thursday, but a reason is not listed. He had been out on bail.
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