TUCSON, Ariz. – A former superintendent was sentenced to 8 years behind bars for child sex tourism and child pornography.
Albert Thomas Rogers is a former school superintendent for the Tanque Verde Unified School District. He entered a guilty plea in November 2009 to charges that he tried to travel to Mexico to have sex with a 13 or 14-year-old boy. He also admitted to having child pornography on him at the time.
The former superintendent reportedly admitted to booking a ‘sex tourism’ visit to Mexico through Yuma. On June 19 of last year he says he traveled there and met someone whom he thought was a driver sent to pick him up but was really an undercover ICE agent.
“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 K. Burge.
A news release from the United States Department of Justice indicates that Rogers paid the supposed driver $260 for hotel expenses and to have sex with a young boy. He also admitted to owning a pornographic video depicting a child as young as 5 years old engaging in sexual conduct.
Detectives executed a search warrant at Rogers’ home in Tucson on June 24, 2009 and discovered almost 1,000 images and about 100 video files with child pornography. Rogers was arrested while still holding the superintendent position in Tucson.
He was sentenced Thursday to 100 months in federal prison and lifetime probation for attempted travel with intent to engage in sex with a minor and possession of child pornography.
