A Miami-Dade County transit bus driver and former Miami Beach police officer was arrested on Thursday and charged with luring aspiring models to a fake photo studio, where he allegedly drugged and raped them.
Posing as a phony talent scout, Lavont Flanders Jr., 36, raped at least five women after he contacted them through ModelMayhem.com, a Web site where aspiring models post photographs and information about themselves.
Promising the models that they would soon be in a commercial, he allegedly invited them for a test photo shoot at a Miramar, Fla., warehouse, located at 3590 State Road 7, where he drugged the models and then sexually assaulted them, FOX affiliate WSVN-TV reported.
Flanders is being held without bond on two counts of sexual battery while the victim was incapacitated.
According to WSVN-TV, Flanders was a Miami Beach police officer throughout the 1990s, but was ultimately fired.
"We are in the process of having a total of five investigations of sexual battery on a victim that is incapacitated," Dale Robertson of the Miramar Police Department told WSVN-TV. "What has happened is these women, young ladies, would post their information and pictures and stuff on this website called ModelMayhem.com and our suspect would go to this Web site and pick his victims off this Web site."
Miramar police say their investigation is ongoing. They are also investigating the possibly that Flanders may have preyed on other women.
An e-mail sent to the support attendant of ModelMayhem.com was not returned. Phone messages to Miramar police spokesman Bill Robertson were also not returned.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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