Florida school resource officer, 34, arrested for having sex with teen student, deputies say
Photo: Marion County Sheriffs Office
MARION COUNTY, Fla. - A former Marion County school resource officer was arrested Monday for allegedly having sex with a teenage student, according to the sheriff's office.
Christian Linan, 34, who has served as a school resource officer at Dunnellon High School since August 2022, was charged with lewd and lascivious battery on a juvenile victim. Linan has since resigned from his position.
Detectives were first made aware of the allegations against Linan after the former student, who is now an adult that lives out of state, came forward and told a counselor about Linan, according to the Marion County Sheriff's Office.
Linan allegedly began to have "inappropriate sexual contact" with the girl in 2019 when she was 15 years old. The girl told deputies the two had sex on multiple occasions while she was a teenager.
The two had contact for the first time in February 2019 when Linan documented her information for a report about a possible bomb threat on a school bus, an arrest affidavit said. He then reached out to her on Snapchat, and their "relationship" escalated. Linan would pick her up from her house to get food before they eventually had sexual relations in his car, deputies said.
"She advised that he told her that this had to stay between them; she advised that he told her this would ruin his reputation, and that they couldn't tell anyone, or they would both get in trouble," the affidavit said. The girl also told deputies that Linan decided to continue to talk to her because "she was mature for her age" and "he could trust her."
The girl also said that she felt Linan was "stalking" her at times, according to the affidavit, because he knew information about her mother. She also said that at one point, she felt that he loved her and "he would leave his wife for her," the affidavit continued.
Their sexual relationship allegedly continued until the summer of 2023. The two last spoke on Jan. 8, 2024.
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The teen told deputies that she never told anyone about her relationship with Linan until she was older, when she eventually told her therapist, and now, law enforcement, the affidavit said.
When deputies spoke with Linan, he admitted to having sexual intercourse with her two times and said she was "of legal age to consent to having sex" because she was "16 or 17," the affidavit said.
"Every day, I have a thousand employees working hard and doing what’s right. So, it hurts each one of us when someone does something like this and casts a shadow over the good that the rest of these deputies are doing," Sheriff Billy Woods said about Linan, who has served the Marion County Sheriff's Office since September 2016. "All of my deputies know the standards I set for the Office of Sheriff. In fact, they take an oath to uphold those standards and they know that I have zero tolerance for this kind of action. I am glad that the victim had the courage to come forward and let us know."
Linan remains in custody at the Marion County Jail without bond.