MIAMI – A former aide to Miami Mayor Francis Suarez pleaded guilty Wednesday to receiving child pornography from a 16-year-old boy, according to federal prosecutors.
Rene Pedrosa, 51, made the plea in Miami federal court.
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The boy accused the then-48-year-old former América TeVé reporter, serving as Suarez’s communications director, of touching and kissing him at Miami City Hall and later texting him seeking sex back in 2019.
After meeting the boy on Instagram, authorities said Pedrosa set up a meeting at City Hall to discuss web design. He “grabbed the victim’s hand and placed it on ... (his) erect penis,” according to an arrest report.
Detectives said Pedrosa used WhatsApp to send a nude picture to the boy.
“I am dying to sleep with you,” police accused Pedrosa of writing. “I’m home by myself, you can come.”
“Rene, I can’t do that,” the boy wrote when Pedrosa asked him to join him in the bathtub, according to the police report.
Federal authorities said Pedrosa “knowingly received sexually explicit images that the boy had taken of himself in the shower.”
Pedrosa resigned from his role with the city prior to his arrest in early 2020.
He’s scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 14 and faces between five and 20 years in prison.