This Monday a hearing took place in the federal court of Miami, where a judge sentenced the journalist René Pedrosa, who was also a former press advisor to the mayor of Miami, to six years in prison and supervised release for 15 years for the charge of receiving child pornography to which he had pleaded guilty.
Judge Robert N. Scola was expected to impose a sentence of between five and 20 years in federal prison.
Pedrosa, 51, who entered the court alone, apologized to the victim’s family and told the judge “I was the adult in the room, I should have done more, I should have said more,” he said about the events in which he was involved.
The victim was not present, but shared a statement saying that she struggles to come to terms with the trauma of what happened. Her mother wiped away her tears and told the judge that she only wanted justice for her son.
Pedrosa pleaded guilty to one count of receiving child pornography on May 24. In exchange, the prosecution agreed to dismiss the remaining accusations, in relation to the events that took place since November 25, 2019.
The offer signed in court by Pedrosa himself, reviews the events and clarifies that being the accused press advisor to the mayor of Miami, he contacted a 16-year-old teenager via Instagram with the aim of hiring him for a digital graphic design job.
Subsequently, the defendant held a business meeting with the victim and the minor’s mother. And on November 25, Pedrosa and the victim met again at the city hall of the city of Miami. In that meeting, the accused would have inappropriately touched the adolescent.
Photos of the naked teenager, sent via WhatsApp, would complete the file against Pedrosa, who resigned from his public job in February 2020, hours before being arrested.
For 3 years and three months, the defendant has remained free on bail. And although last Wednesday at the hearing, the federal prosecutor wanted to revoke that condition, Judge Scola rejected the request.
In the documents signed in court, it is clear that Pedrosa’s legal team acknowledges that if the case had gone to trial, the prosecution would have been in a position to prove the charge.
In a statement, the defendant’s defense stated: “Mr. Pedrosa chose to plead guilty and avoid trial. The agreement is in the best interest of him and his family. With this agreement, the victim – who is now 20 years old – is exempted from testifying in court. As a settlement of the guilty plea, the government will dismiss the remaining charges against Mr. Pedrosa.”
In 2021, the city of Miami reached an agreement with the victim’s relatives and paid compensation of $100,000.
Pedrosa, who for years worked as a local television journalist in Miami, would turn himself in to the authorities this Wednesday, August 16.
