Former Miami mayoral aide pleads guilty to receiving child porn images from a teen

A former Miami mayoral aide who had previously worked as a longtime TV news reporter pleaded guilty Wednesday to receiving images of a minor’s private parts on his cellphone and now faces at least five years in prison.

Rene Pedrosa, 51, who chose to cut a plea deal rather than go to trial this week, acknowledged in Miami federal court that he interacted with a 16-year-old boy in a sexual manner when he came to City Hall for a job interview and that he later received electronic images of the minor’s penis from him in December 2019.

“Did you do those things, Mr. Pedrosa?” U.S. District Judge Robert Scola asked the defendant at his plea hearing.

Pedrosa paused, then said: “Yes, sir.”

Pedrosa, who has been free on bond since his arrest in 2020, will be sentenced on Aug. 14. It is apparent from his guilty plea to receiving child-porn images from the teen that the defendant and his lawyers, Susy Ribero-Ayala and Rick Yabor, are trying to minimize his possible prison time. While the offense imposes a mandatory minimum of five years, the other counts in his indictment carry minimum punishment of 10 to 15 years. Those other, more serious charges will be dropped as part of his agreement.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jessica Obenauf is expected to seek more than five years in prison for Pedrosa. At Wednesday’s hearing, she argued that the judge should revoke his bond and place him in custody immediately at the Federal Detention Center because he is now a convicted felon and will have to register as a sex offender.

“He has committed a hands-on offense,” Obenauf told the judge. “This is not just an online [child porn] case.”

Scola, however, noted that Pedrosa has been free on bond for the more than three years without incident and rejected the prosecutor’s request to remand him to the federal lock-up.

After the hearing, Pedrosa, who was surrounded by family members, declined to comment. His lawyers also did not want to say anything before the sentencing.

Pedrosa had been a longtime TV and radio reporter, most recently working for América TeVé-Channel 41, a Spanish-language television station based in Hialeah Gardens that covers news across Miami-Dade County. Miami Mayor Francis Suarez hired Pedrosa in early 2019 to handle his public communications.

The following year, Pedrosa was arrested and accused of going on Instagram and using his position to lure the minor to City Hall, promising him a job designing a web page, according to a factual statement filed with his plea agreement and other court records. In November 2019, Pedrosa met with the teen at a cafe in Coconut Grove to talk about the possible job. Then, on Nov. 25, the boy’s mother drove him to City Hall to talk with Pedrosa again about the job.

At that follow-up meeting, the statement says, Pedrosa groped the teen.

“During the meeting, [Pedrosa] touched the minor victim’s penis over his clothing multiple times, grabbed his buttocks, kissed [him], and placed [his] hand over [Pedrosa’s] clothed erect penis,” the statement says.

After the meeting, Pedrosa continued to communicate with the minor via WhatsApp, an internet messaging system.

“During a WhatsApp conversation that occurred on December 22, 2019 ... [Pedrosa] knowingly received close-up visual depictions of the minor victim’s naked penis and body that the [teen] took while showering,” the statement says. “The images depicted the minor victim engaged in sexually explicit conduct and therefore constitute child pornography.”

The case was originally investigated by Miami police and then taken over by the FBI, which has worked with the U.S. Attorney’s Office on Pedrosa’s prosecution.

In 2021, Miami’s city government paid $100,000 in a settlement agreement with the family of the teen who accused Pedrosa of sexual misconduct.