Newly available court documents reveal why the statewide chairman of Oklahoma College Republicans was arrested last Friday on charges he propositioned and had sex with a child under 16.
Jonathan Hernandez, who was also recently put in charge of Latino outreach by the Oklahoma Republican Party, was arrested on charges he made lewd or indecent proposals to a minor in addition to sodomy of a victim under the age of 16.
According to the initial filing and affidavit used to issue an arrest warrant in Oklahoma County, Hernandez is accused of having sex with a 14 -year -old boy two years ago inside his dorm room at Oklahoma Christian University.
Court documents state that Hernandez was in a ministerial role at the victim’s church and gained the trust of the victim and his mother. The now-teenaged boy said he was interested in visiting the OCU campus in Edmond, and his mother encouraged him to tour the campus with Hernandez.
According to the victim’s statement in court documents, instead of going on a campus tour, Hernandez allegedly took the boy up to his dorm room “to chill and watch movies”. It was while sitting on the couch with Hernandez, the victim told campus police, things took a sexual turn and the two watched porn on Hernandez’s cell phone. During this incident, the boy told police, court records show, he felt pressured to masturbate and have oral sex with Hernandez at Hernandez’s insistence. At one time, Hernandez allegedly insisted the boy “help a homie out”.
After the first incident, Hernandez texted the boy again for another campus visit. The now-teenaged victim said he showed up, but when he refused Hernandez’s requests, he was forced to watch Hernandez pleasure himself in front of him.
After a while, the police report states, Hernandez began to go over to the victim’s house repeatedly where the boy’s mother had no idea what had allegedly happened. Hernandez insisted the boy, who was now refusing to come back to campus, visit OCU again, and the boy’s mother pushed for him to go with Hernandez back to campus.
During another house visit, Hernandez was allowed by the boy’s mother up to the boy’s room, court documents state, where the boy was thrown on his bed and Hernandez allegedly pulled out his penis, but the boy said he did not want to engage in anything with Hernandez.
The victim said he decided to finally come forward to campus police last May after two years of keeping what happened to himself because Hernandez was about to leave campus, and he wanted campus police to be able to help him while Hernandez was still living nearby.
OCU Police interviewed Hernandez who said he knew the boy from church and gave him a campus tour and took the boy out to eat. He also said, according to police records, the boy spent the night at his dorm room on numerous occasions. Hernandez police state in their report said the boy was welcomed on campus numerous times because he was interested in attending the school eventually.
As for the allegations of sexual contact, Hernandez police stated in court documents said he never touched the boy, but he once did make fun of the size of the boy’s penis.
Hernandez’s bio was removed from the Oklahoma Republican Party website, and the Oklahoma Republican Party released the following statement:
“The Oklahoma Republican Party condemns all instances of sexual assault in the strongest possible terms. Victims deserve justice, and their assailants should be punished to the fullest extent of the law. We did not have any prior knowledge of investigations into Mr. Hernandez and will let the judicial process play out,” said OKGOP Chairman A.J. Ferate.
Campaign filings show Hernandez worked for Oklahoma Education Secretary Ryan Walters’ campaign for State Superintendent of Public Instruction. The campaign released a statement saying Hernandez was let go after two weeks of insufficient performance on the job early on in 2022.
Hernandez held employment in the Oklahoma State Senate starting this year. FOX23 has confirmed that Hernandez was fired from his position once word of his arrest made it to his higher ups, and he did not report for work on July 8th. Hernandez was a soundboard operator who started last February at the State Senate. He accepted a full-time position doing that job back in June.
