LAUDERDALE LAKES, Fla. — A Coral Springs man who was born in Miami faced charges on Tuesday for a sexual battery that happened more than a decade ago in Broward County.
Court records show that a Broward Sheriff’s Office detective requested a warrant for Melvin Kendrick’s arrest on Feb. 18 for the 2015 sexual battery.
“The victim had no way of escaping,” the detective wrote, according to the warrant.
When Kendrick was 48 years old, he held a victim against her will on July 10, 2015, and used force during the sexual battery, according to the arrest warrant.
After the abuse, the victim saw an opportunity to jump out of a car and run to a restaurant for help in Lauderdale Lakes, according to deputies.
The victim then met with deputies at the 3600 block of West Oakland Park Boulevard, and reported she was walking when a man cornered her, threatened to kill her, tossed her phone, and forced her into his car, where there was another man, records show.
In December 2024, BSO’s cold case unit reviewed the case and submitted DNA evidence to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s DNA Investigative Support Database, which includes felons’ DNA, according to deputies.
“A familial DNA search of the unidentified suspect male profiles were requested,” a deputy wrote, records show.
The database identified “an inmate who was a possible close family member” of a suspect, and after DNA testing, helped deputies to identify Kendrick, 59, as the woman’s attacker in 2015, according to deputies.
Court records show prosecutors filed a case against Kendrick on Monday, after deputies arrested him on Feb. 19 in Coral Springs.
Kendrick appeared in court on Feb. 20, facing two felony charges: Sexual battery, a first-degree felony, and false imprisonment, a second-degree felony. His bond is $55,000 with a GPS monitor order.
Broward County Circuit Judge Peter Holden was set to preside over Kendrick’s case.
Local 10 News Assignment Editor Carson Merlo contributed to this report.
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