MIAMI – Rene Pedrosa, a disgraced local journalist who joined Miami Mayor Mayor Francis Suarez staff last year, walked out of Miami-Dade County jail on Friday.
“You guys know I cannot make a comment,” Pedros said after he was released on a $26,500 bond on charges of battery, transmitting pornography to a minor, promoting the sexual performance of a child and computer pornography.
A 16-year-old boy accused the 48-year-old former América TeVé reporter of touching and kissing him at City Hall and later text messaging him to proposition him for sex at his home.
“I have spoken to the mother of the reported victim and assured her that this is handled to the full extent of the law,” Suarez said in a statement on Friday.
After meeting the boy on Instagram, Pedrosa allegedly set up a Nov. 25 meeting at City Hall to discuss web design. He "grabbed the victim’s hand and placed it on ... [his] erect penis,” according to the arrest report.
Detectives said Pedrosa used WhatsApp to send a nude picture to the boy.
“I am dying to sleep with you,” Pedrosa allegedly wrote. “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.
The victim reported the incident to police on Jan. 19, and officers seized Pedrosa’s phone on Jan. 28. He resigned as Suarez’s communication director on Tuesday and was arrested on Friday.
“The focus should really be on the victim,” Miami Police Chief Jorge Colina said, adding “the family of the victim ... displayed an incredible amount of courage in coming forward" and detectives “don’t know if there are other victims.”
Colina is asking anyone with information about other victims of Pedrosa to call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477.