Former Miami mayor's aide Rene Pedrosa ordered to serve 6-year prison term on child porn charge
MIAMI - Two years after his arrest Rene Pedrosa, a former aide to Mayor Francis Suarez on Monday was sentenced in federal court to serve six years in connection with a plea deal related to child pornography charges.
According to his attorney Rick Yabor, Pedrosa was ordered to federal prison for his six-year term which will be followed by 15 years of probation after pleading guilty to one count of receipt of child pornography.
In exchange for the guilty plea, federal prosecutors agreed to drop several other criminal counts. Pedrosa had faced a prison term of up to 20 years.
Pedrosa, who is also a long-time television reporter, met a teen in Nov. 2019 on social media and in person and invited him to his office to talk about a website design job, according to the arrest report.
One meeting took place at Miami City Hall on Nov. 25, 2019. Pedrosa admitted that during the meeting, he kissed and sexually touched the boy, who had been dropped off at City Hall for a website design follow-up meeting by his mother.
"The defendant stopped, grabbed the victim's hand, kissed (victim) on (victim's) lips and grabbed (victim's) buttocks over the clothing," according to the arrest report.
Pedrosa kept in touch with the teen and is also accused of sending him lewd pictures and asking for pictures in return. On Dec. 22, 2019, Pedrosa knowingly received sexually explicit images that the boy had taken of himself in the shower.
The FBI conducted the investigation.
Federal investigators also obtained text messages showing that Pedrosa invited the victim to his home for sex and the teen said no, reminding Pedrosa that he was a minor.
Mayor Suarez responded after the arrest and said his thoughts were with the victim and he hoped the matter was handled to the full extent of the law.