In his Morning briefing series on TikTokPolk County, Florida Sheriff Grady Judd posts daily videos of criminals apprehended by his office. The clips are just a taste of the popular sheriff’s personality. He is irreverent, often characterizing the arrest of prisoners with aphorisms: “Play stupid games, win stupid prizes” or “He said he wanted to go to heaven.” We made arrangements for him,” about a suspect who died in a shooting. Video captions are often more succinct: “Don’t do meth, K? While his office prides itself on being extremely tough on offenders, it has special vitriol for child predators. “We will go to the ends of the earth to arrest you if you victimize children,” said the five-term sheriff. said once during a press briefing.

This content strategy has made Judd a bona fide star on TikTok, where videos are posted daily for his 700,000 followers. But after a now viral report of the Center for Investigative Journalism (CIR) and PBS Newshour found that detectives in Judd’s office accused a 12-year-old girl of lying about him sexual assault claims – claims that she was forced to gather her own evidence until it was proven – citizens, offline and online, are demanding answers. So far, they have been met with silence.

Taylor Cadle, now 21, was just eight years old when she was adopted by her great-uncle, Henry Cadle, and his wife. But what was supposed to be a dream home quickly turned scary, when Henry began sexually assaulting her. In 2016, Cadle told an adult at his church, who called the police. Polk County Sheriff’s Office Detective Melissa Turnage arrived. And she didn’t believe her. (The Polk County Sheriff’s Office did not respond to rolling stone(multiple requests for comments.)

According to the (CIR) and PBS Newshour, which includes audio from Cadle’s 2016 interview, Turnage accused her of making up the story. “If you’re angry because your phone was taken away, let’s say it now and get it over with,” he can be heard saying in the clip. Cadle was charged with filing a false report and, with encouragement from the adults around her, pleaded guilty. She did a year of community service and had to write a letter of apology to her great-uncle and the police. And she returned to Henry’s house.

Rachel de Leon is the journalist behind the story and appears in the 2023 Netflix documentary. Victim/Suspect, which explores cases in the United States where women who report sexual assault are instead criminalized by police who believe they were lying. “I had been investigating adults accused of making false reports of sexual assault,” de Leon says. rolling stone. “I didn’t even know this happened to kids.”

Cadle continued to live in the house for another year. In 2017, she was attacked again by Henry. This time, she had a plan. She took undercover photos and videos using her cell phone, taking special care to note things that detectives hadn’t been able to find evidence for last time, such as time, location from the vehicle and even a box of condoms that Henry had bought. But even when she had concrete evidence of her experience on her cell phone, she still considered not calling the police again.

“Even with the amount of evidence, I still had a hard time believing they would believe me. I look at those photos and I always try to talk myself out of calling the cops that night,” she says. rolling stone. “I thought I had the evidence and if they had any chance of believing me, it was now or never for me to make that phone call. Henry initially denied the allegations, but was arrested and pleaded no contest. In 2017, he was sentenced to 17 years in prison and is registered as a sexual predator, according to the Lakeland Ledger. Cadle’s initial accusation was dismissed, but her experience still made her nervous. “Throughout this whole process, I didn’t trust anything they said,” she said. “I felt like something was going to grab me at any moment.”

Now a mother of two, Cadle decided to reveal her story and her face, with the help of de Leon. “I feel like going public with my name and showing my face was a way for me to take back control of my life, because I no longer had to keep silent and sit back and watch things unfold,” she said. “It was a way for me to own my story.” Since his segment first aired on PBS NewsHour and posted to TikTok, the video has become outdated. 2 million views on the app alone, with thousands of comments sharing their support for Cadle and praising his courage.

However, until now, Judd has not acknowledged the story. Over the past seven days, he’s posted on TikTok about Halloween, voting in the presidential election, and even the story of a woman charged with a crime for allegedly trying to steal a chihuahua named Felony . The lack of response infuriates Cadle.

“I was silenced. And without my testimony, I would still be sitting here silent today,” she says. “Even though there are millions of views and thousands of comments, you continue to act as if nothing happened. The fact that (Turnage) is still able to walk around, hold a badge and say she still works for the Polk County Sheriff’s Office completely blows my mind. I think this is absolutely unacceptable.

It’s been more than eight years since the Polk County Sheriff’s Office dismissed Cadle’s case, acknowledging that she was telling the truth about her assault. But she never heard a single word of apology. Representatives for the Polk County Sheriff’s Office declined an interview and did not respond to requests for comment on de Leon’s reporting. They also did not respond to multiple requests for rolling stone regarding Cadle’s case, Turnage’s initial treatment of Cadle, or any matter regarding discipline. For de Leon, whose reporting consistently calls into question police departments’ handling of sexual assault, she hopes the next step in Cadle’s story will be some sort of feedback directly from the County Sheriff’s Office. Polk. “I hope for transparency. I hope for answers,” says de Leon. “I want to know if anything in their protocols or processes has changed so that this can no longer happen to a child.”

According to Cadle, his assault forever changed his perspective. She doesn’t trust easily. Now a mother after giving birth at 16, she still doesn’t trust anyone with her children. It is frustrating, especially given the outsized reaction to De Leon’s story, that Judd refuses to acknowledge the department’s mistake. But Cadle says it’s been too long for a half-hearted apology. She wants to be seen. And she wants them to do better.

“I hope that if there is another victim, I just want them to know that you are not alone,” she said. “I am fighting very hard for some type of change, for some type of recognition, not only for myself, but for any other victim who has experienced this, so that no one has to encounter such a thing again. ‘future.”