PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. (AP) — Authorities in Port Charlotte say a state wildlife officer has been charged with lewd battery on a 14-year-old girl.

The Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office says 37-year-old John Michael Hoover was arrested Tuesday.

Hoover is an officer with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. He posted $10,000 bail and was released from the Charlotte County Jail later Tuesday.

Officials say deputies saw Hoover leaving an abandoned house in Port Charlotte with the teen in July.

According to an arrest report, Hoover said he caught the girl in the house with a man, who ran. He then told deputies he would handle the investigation.

The sheriff’s office collected new information in January and learned Hoover had sex twice with the girl.

Records did not list an attorney for Hoover.

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