Florida Ex-Cop Sentenced in Sex Sting
By Jack Dolan, the Miami Herald.com

A fired Hollywood, Florida, police officer was sentenced to more than three years in federal prison on Monday for attempting to pay to have sex with a pair of Costa Rican teenagers at a hotel near the Miami International Airport.

Derek Roberts, 30, was one of 11 men convicted on various charges after visiting a Web-based travel agency called Costa Rican Taboo Vacations, which offered its customers sex with minors.

There was no such company, however. The site was part of a sting operation set up by the FBI and Fort Lauderdale police to target the growing number of American pedophiles who travel abroad to commit their crimes.

The 10 other men, including a school teacher who is scheduled for sentencing on Monday, were arrested when they attempted to board flights to Costa Rica.

But Roberts tried to back out of the $1,000 trip he booked, then negotiated with an undercover agent to bring minors to Miami for him, prosecutors said. They agreed on a price of $450.

Roberts' attorney argued that he only made the arrangement because the phony travel company set up by authorities refused to give him a full refund after he backed out of the Costa Rican trip.

''He was just trying to get some benefit,'' defense attorney Sam Rabin told U.S. District Judge Alan Gold at the sentencing in Miami federal court. ``I honestly believe had they given him a full refund, there wouldn't be a case.''

The authorities refused to give a full refund because they feared doing so might lead Roberts to suspect that he wasn't dealing with a sufficiently shady sex-tour operator, said a source familiar with the investigation.

On June 10, 2004, Roberts went to an airport hotel and gave $50 to an undercover agent, whom he believed was the handler for two 16-year-old girls flown in from Costa Rica for his pleasure. The cash supplemented a $400 charge for the encounter that Roberts had already put on a credit card.

Under a U.S. federal law requiring the forfeiture of assets used in certain crimes, the government took the $450 and the 1994 Nissan Pathfinder Roberts drove to the hotel.

Roberts asked for a retrial on Monday, arguing that his actions did not fall under federal jurisdiction because he did not travel outside of the country and all of his illicit behavior occurred in Florida.

But Gold rejected the motion on the grounds that everything from the telephones and credit cards Roberts used to the baby oil he brought to the hotel -- which was manufactured in New Jersey -- lent themselves to interstate commerce charges.

Gold cited the fact that Roberts was a police officer as a ''significant'' aggravating factor in his sentencing decision. Roberts made some of the calls to arrange his tryst while on duty, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Stefanie Moon.

Roberts, who has been out after posting $100,000 bond since his arrest, is scheduled to surrender to the federal Bureau of Prisons at noon on June 10 to begin serving his 37-month sentence.