Miami police officer with porn past fights back against accuser

Sabine Raymonvil files restraining order, claims safety concern

MIAMI – A Miami police officer who had a secret past in pornographic videos is fighting back against her accuser.

Sabine Raymonvil, who became a police officer in 2007, recently filed a restraining order in court, alleging that Melvin Cochran, the man who started the investigation into her past and released the hardcore videos, retaliated against her after she ended her romantic relationship with him.

In the report, Raymonvil claims Cochran, 59, who is married, has stalked her, made false statements about her to another police officer and that he alleged to the media that she was involved in a "criminal pornography enterprise." She even claimed she "fears for her life."

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Cochran not only denied stalking Raymonvil but also denied they ever had anything but a professional relationship during a close association between the two, dating back to 2005, when Raymonvil was 20 years old.

A judge denied Raymonvil's injunction and a petition to seal the records from public view. Cochran said his first role in Raymonvil's life was helping her with her fledgling modeling and acting career. He also admitted introducing Raymonvil to porn actor Emerson Callum, with whom she would appear in pornographic videos and who was later sentenced to life in federal prison for drugging and raping women prior to videotaping them having sex.

"She was doing videos with a lot of people, and they were paying her," Cochran said.

One question facing the internal investigation is whether Raymonvil was untruthful when she didn't list the porn as part of her complete work history as required in her police application. It's the same omission that got former Officer Mike Verdugo fired in 2009 after it was learned he appeared in a gay porn film prior to his hiring at the Hollywood Police Department.

But Raymonvil's attorney, Adam Horowitz, said mentioning the porn was not necessary, because she was never paid for it. He said his client appeared in the videos at Cochran's urging to "practice for the casting couch" to help advance her modeling and acting career.

But that career was not taking off, and in 2006, Raymonvil got a job as a property clerk at the Miami Police Department, a job Cochran said he helped her get through his own police officer friends. When she applied to become a police officer the following year, she listed Cochran as both a former employer and a her emergency contact. Cochran said Raymonvil told him she didn't pass the polygraph test, but her hiring documents show background investigators found "no information to substantiate the areas of concern" regarding the lie detector and approved her for employment anyway.

Cochran said Raymonvil hid from investigators the fact that she had dated a drug dealer shortly before her hiring at the Miami Police Department. Police records show Raymonvil complained to police in June 2006 that her then-boyfriend pulled a 9 mm pistol on her at the Miami apartment complex where she was living.

The police report clearly lists the boyfriend's occupation as "narcotics sales." Records show Raymonvil was later evicted from the apartment complex as a result of the incident. When Raymonvil applied to become a police officer, she denied that had never associated with anyone anyone known to be involved in illegal activity.

Not only did the Miami Police Department apparently fail to uncover its own police report involving Raymonvil, but also that Raymonvil had been evicted from her apartment, even though she listed the apartment complex phone number in her application. When questioned about it, a department representative told Local 10 News those issues are now part of the internal investigation.

Cochran is also under investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for his actions in the case, including questions regarding his truthfulness with Miami police in filing the internal investigation against Raymonvil. He said he legally obtained the videotapes, but his role in the production of the videos is murky. He said the trouble between them began when a transportation business they were involved in went bust and was involved in a lawsuit.

"I've known her a long time, and I trusted her, and she backstabbed me," Cochran, who has owned several businesses, said.

Cochran said he didn't use the tapes as extortion on his longtime friend and partner, but that he told he had them and that he would "hold onto them until the lawsuit goes through." He said it was only after she claimed in police reports that he was stalking her did he go to internal affairs with the tapes and release them to the media. He said he has considered marketing the videos.

"(A) Miami officer who's working, doing X-rated porn?" he said. "It's a gold mine."

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