FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Prosecutors accused a Broward County sexual predator of not reporting his residence and of owning a yellow school bus and a travel trailer without registering it — as he is required to do so in Florida.
Sonny Steel, also known as Bernard Martin Hofstadter, already had a criminal record when a 13-year-old girl first accused him of rape in 1997 in Broward.
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A doctor at a rape crisis center found evidence after the girl told her parents that a sleepover at her friend’s home in Plantation had turned into a terrible nightmare, according to police.
Plantation police officers arrested Steel, then 43, after he confessed to raping his daughter’s friend. A jury convicted him of two counts of sexual battery, and a circuit judge sentenced him to eight years in prison on Oct. 4, 2000, records show.
Steel was released from prison on Jan. 25, 2005, according to his Florida Department of Corrections profile. And in 2014, the registered sex offender was convicted of failing to register, according to his Florida Department of Law Enforcement profile.
In January, a boat registered to Steel turned up in the Florida Keys as part of a human smuggling operation, according to a statement released by the FDLE on Tuesday.
Investigators reported on Feb. 22 that Steel, 69, was living at 2655 Key Largo Ln., in Fort Lauderdale, according to FDLE records.
Fort Lauderdale and FDLE officers arrested Steel on Feb. 24, and he remained at the main jail held without bond on Tuesday, according to Broward Sheriff’s Office records.
Steel is facing 12 counts of providing false sexual predator registration information by act or omission, and two counts of failure of a sexual predator to report a change in vehicles owned.
Investigators are asking anyone with information about the sexual predator’s crimes to call 1-888-357-7332.
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