A former superintendent at the Gadsden Elementary School District near Tucson was sentenced to some prison time today for a vacation he planned last year and some photos cops found at his house.
The vacation 52-year-old Albert Thomas Rogers planned wasn't to an exotic beach -- it was to a Mexican hotel room, where he planned to have sex with a 14-year-old boy. And the photos were of kids, some as young as 5 years old, having sex.
Authorities say, on June 19, of last year, Rogers tried booking a "sex tourism" vacation through a business near Yuma. What Rogers didn't know was that the "business" through which he booked his little getaway was actually run by undercover Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
Rogers admitted to authorities that he traveled to Yuma, where he met a man he thought was going to drive him across the border, set him up in a hotel, and hook him up with a 14-year-old Mexican boy so the two could have sex.
What does a getaway of this nature run a former school superintendent, you might be asking? Roughly $260.
Rogers admitted to the driver that he was a collector of kiddy-porn and that he had several images and videos of child erotica.
The driver actually was an ICE agent, who arrested Rogers.
About a week after his arrest, federal agents armed with a warrant searched Rogers' Tucson home, where they found 974 images and 98 videos of kids engaged in various sex acts.
"It is disturbing that someone, having held such a trusted position with children could have acted with such depravity and committed these illegal acts targeting child victims," says U.S.
Attorney Dennis Burke. "Now Rogers will pay a price for predatory behavior."
Rogers pleaded guilty to attempted travel with intent to engage in sex with a minor and possession of child pornography. He was sentenced this morning in federal court to eight years in prison.
