Rene Pedrosa, a former TV personality and trusted aide to Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, was jailed Friday morning after police said he lured a teen to City Hall, groped him and later sent the boy an explicit photo on his cellphone.
Pedrosa was booked into the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center Friday just after 10 a.m. on charges of battery and transmitting pornography to a minor.
Earlier this week, Pedrosa, 48, resigned amid the probe, telling his boss, Suarez, that he was being investigated for some type of “personal misconduct,” the mayor said.
Pedrosa amplified Suarez’s politics and policies in English and Spanish-language media as the mayor’s chief spokesman for about 12 months after leaving a career in local television news reporting. He was seen as one of the mayor’s most bullish promoters in a municipal government where some of the only power the mayor has is in his ability to communicate his agenda to the public and act as a vocal booster for the city.
But police say that Pedrosa used his position of power to lure the 16-year-old boy to City Hall.
According to an arrest report, Pedrosa reached out to the teen on Instagram in November, inviting him to City Hall to talk about a possible job designing a web page. Inside a conference room, police say, he groped the teen, touched his hair and kissed the terrified teen on the lips. He also placed the teen’s hand on his “erect penis,” the report said.
“The victim was able to pull away,” according to the police report. “The defendant kept grabbing the victim’s buttocks. The victim then pushed the defendant away ... and exited the room.”
A few days later, Pedrosa sent the boy a message via the Whatsapp messenger, asking for a photo. The teen sent a nude photo of himself by a bathtub, according to a police report. Pedrosa responded by sending him a photo of an erect penis, according to the police report.
Last month, officers raided Pedrosa’s home and seized seven electronic devices, which were later analyzed for explicit material. On Pedrosa’s Samsung phone, detectives found the photo sent by the teen.
According to the police report, Pedrosa also sent text messages to the teen. One said: “I’m dying to sleep with you, I’m home by myself, You can come over, It was you and I would have hoy foreplay” (it’s unclear if there was a typo in the message).
The teen responded: “Rene I can’t do that, also knowing I’m a minor just made me even worse so yeah.”
The victim and his relatives are “pleased with the arrest and would like swift and substantial justice and punishment,” said Miami lawyer Raymond Rafool, who represents the family.
“Where it occurred in City Hall is extremely terrifying and horrible,” Rafool said. “What’s worse is he utilized his position in City Hall as part of his web trap.”
Friday afternoon, Suarez refused to take questions from a Herald reporter. He only released a statement saying he’d been made aware of Pedrosa’s arrest.
“The residents of Miami deserve the highest standards from municipal employees,” Suarez wrote. “I will always work to ensure that my administration delivers accountability and takes action to uphold those standards. I have spoken to the mother of the reported victim and assured her that this is handled to the full extent of the law. My thoughts are with the reported victim and the family and we expect the legal process to take its course.”
Suarez hired Pedrosa in early 2019 to handle his public communications. According to his employment application, Pedrosa spent the previous six years working as a reporter for América TeVé-Channel 41, a Spanish-language television station based in Hialeah Gardens that covers news across Miami-Dade County.
When he initially submitted his application in December 2018, Pedrosa failed to list two prior convictions for driving under the influence in 2002 and 2009. Records show that in January 2019, he was allowed to amend his application to include the convictions.
Miami-Dade court records show he was also arrested and charged in 2011 with misdemeanor loitering or prowling, though prosecutors later dropped the case and he was not convicted.
At a press conference Friday afternoon at Miami police headquarters, Police Chief Jorge Colina said investigators began looking at the case on Jan. 19, when the family contacted police.
Colina said the U.S. Secret Service helped with scanning the seven confiscated electronic devices. He said more charges may be forthcoming if more evidence is found.
“We don’t know if there are other victims,” Colina said. “This investigation is not over. There are still other electronic devices.”
Colina said they believe the first physical contact between the teen and Pedrosa was at City Hall. He refused to say if Pedrosa spoke to investigators after he was picked up and brought to police headquarters early Friday.
The chief said he’d only spoken with the mayor twice about Pedrosa’s situation, once when the arrest was imminent and again after the arrest.
The mayor and City Manager Emilio González, who is expected to make his recent resignation effective late next week, were not at the press conference. Commissioner Joe Carollo, a fierce political foe of the mayor, was the only elected official present.
Carollo passed out copies of the application Pedrosa had signed in which he initially didn’t list any convictions in December 2018, which he was later allowed to amend to include the convictions.
“That should have opened up some eyes,” Carollo said.
Pedrosa, who for so many years covered press conferences like the one Friday, posted $100,000 bail and was released. He could make his first appearance in court Saturday morning. He will stand trial in Miami-Dade, but prosecutors from Broward County have agreed to take over the case.
On Friday, Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle asked Gov. Ron Desantis that her office be recused from the case “to avoid the appearance of impropriety,” according to a letter obtained by the Miami Herald. Prosecutors from her sexual battery and cyber-crimes units were initially involved in helping police during the investigation.
But because of Pedrosa’s “relationship with the office,” Fernandez Rundle asked that prosecutors from another county take over the case. Pedrosa was well-known to Fernandez Rundle’s office, having covered many stories about court cases during his years as a television reporter.
The letter also cites Pedrosa’s “recent contact with the office,” although it doesn’t give more details. One source with knowledge of the investigation said that Pedrosa, on the day Miami cops raided his condo, called Fernandez Rundle’s office in a failed attempt to speak with her — and even sought legal advice.
Pedrosa had been absent from City Hall a week before his resignation on Tuesday. He was last seen publicly representing the mayor at Suarez’s state of the city speech Jan. 28. He went on a “personal leave” the following day.
This story was originally published February 07, 2020 7:27 AM.
Joey Flechas
Miami Herald
