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Officer Kevin Reik’s booking photo from his 2014 arrest. {Courtesy: BSO}

By Kevin Deutsch

A Coral Springs Police Officer faces a battery charge for allegedly touching a woman against her will following a birthday dinner at Tap 42, records show.

The arrest of Officer Kevin Tyler Reik, 34, was disclosed by the Broward County State Attorney’s Office Thursday as part of their prosecution of Yvonne Serrano, who is awaiting trial for allegedly killing Daniela Tabares Maya in November 2019, according to court records. Reik’s involvement in the Serrano case was not immediately clear.

The woman allegedly battered by Reik was not publicly identified. She has no connection to the Serrano case, the records show.

Reik was off-duty on July 2, 2020, when he and his wife joined the battery victim and her boyfriend for a dinner reservation at Tap 42, 3111 N. University Dr., police said. The four were drinking alcohol before, during, and after their outing, including at Reik’s Coral Springs home following dinner, according to an arrest affidavit filed by Coral Springs Police.

The two couples changed into bathing suits and went swimming in Reik’s hot tub, where he allegedly “walked over to the victim, got on top of her, and grabbed her waist/hips,” wrote Coral Springs Police Detective Michelle Gianino of the Special Victims Unit.

Reik’s wife “immediately yelled at [Reik] “What are you doing? “You are so drunk,” according to the affidavit. “[Reik] backed off, and nothing more was said by anyone.”

At 1 a.m. the next morning, the victim and her boyfriend went to sleep in Reik’s guest bedroom. She had changed into a t-shirt and shorts, with no undergarments, and slept on her side facing away from the door, police said.

About an hour later, Reik “went through a secured baby gate that blocked the guestroom entrance and then opened the guest bedroom door,” Gianino wrote.

The noise woke the victim before Reik “spooned” her, pressing the front of his body against the back of her body and grabbing her hips, police said.

The victim said she was “sleepy and uncomfortable and did not know what was going on,” according to the affidavit.

“She moved around in the bed thinking that this would encourage him to leave, but he did not,” wrote Gianino. “Instead, he moved down towards her buttocks. The defendant positioned himself half on the bed half off and pressed his entire face (nose and mouth) inside the area where the victim’s butt cheeks come together.”

The unwanted touching was done “over the victim’s clothing while [Reik] simultaneously held onto her buttock cheeks with both hands,” police said. The victim then moved “over and away from the defendant, and he got up and left the room.”

Reik re-entered the room ten minutes later, police said, again climbing into bed and spooning the victim.

He again put his mouth and nose “inside the area where her butt cheeks come together” while using his hands to “touch and feel her body.”

“[Reik] then repositioned himself to spoon the victim and put his face close enough to her head to whisper in her ear,” wrote Gianino. “The victim believed he was trying to ‘hush’ her so that she would not say anything.”

Reik “attempted to lift her t-shirt and touch her breast area. The victim held her shirt down close to her body so that he could not lift it up. [Reik] did not try to pull her shorts down.”

Concerned Reik’s behavior was “escalating,” the victim shook her boyfriend to awaken him, police said.

When the man “woke up and saw [Reik] in the bed, he asked him, “what are you doing?” then shoved [Reik] causing him to fall off the bed,” wrote Gianino.

Reik got up and left the room, at which point “the door was immediately closed and locked by the victim preventing [Reik] from gaining entry back into the bedroom.”

The victim and her boyfriend left Reik’s home and reported the incident to police, providing sworn audio and taped statements to investigators.

Additional “corroborating evidence” was also obtained, according to the affidavit.

Reik was initially charged by police with three counts of battery. Records show he currently faces one count. He has pleaded not guilty.

The court ordered Reik to submit an oral DNA swab to the police department as part of the case, records show.

Reik’s attorney, Michael Dutko, filed court papers in June stating he and prosecutors had agreed to delay the start of Reik’s scheduled trial while they worked out details of his entry into a Misdemeanor Diversion Program.

“A jury trial is not anticipated,” wrote Dutko, who could not immediately be reached for comment Sunday.

According to Coral Springs Police, Reik was placed on administrative duty by the police department shortly after the July 2020 incident.

“The Department will conduct a thorough investigation once any criminal proceedings are completed by the State Attorney’s Office,” said Coral Springs Police Sgt. Ernesto Bruna.

The next court date in Reik’s case is scheduled for Oct. 4.

The alleged battery is not Reik’s first time facing criminal charges. In 2013, Broward prosecutors charged him with giving a false crime report.

Around 3 a.m. on April 5, 2013, Reik allegedly crashed his four-door Nissan into a concrete barrier on University Drive in Davie while off-duty, after “a couple of drinks earlier in the evening,” prosecutors wrote in a 2013 court filing. The crash caused significant damage, according to the filing.

“Unaware the single-vehicle crash had been captured by a traffic video camera, [Reik] exercised insufficient creative restraint while reporting the crash to officers of the Davie Police, wherein defendant alleged a white Chevrolet pickup truck had struck his car and subsequently fled the scene,” prosecutors wrote.

“[Reik] went so far as to sign an affidavit expressing his desire that the driver of the pickup be prosecuted. Per [Reik’s] request, a criminal investigation was initiated at the time, but in light of the above-mentioned video, that investigation culminated” in Reik’s prosecution, prosecutors said.

Reik pleaded not guilty. Records show prosecutors later chose not to pursue the misdemeanor case. They refiled charges of official misconduct and giving a false crime report against Reik in 2014, leading to a jury trial at which Reik was acquitted.

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Kevin Deutsch

Kevin Deutsch is an award-winning journalist and author of two nonfiction books. He covers general assignment news and Jewish community issues for Talk Media. He has also worked as a staff writer at The Miami Times, the Rio Grande SUN, the New York Daily News, Newsday, The Miami Herald, The Palm Beach Post, The Riverdale Press, and Bronx Justice News.