Ex-Tucson Superintendent Sentenced in Sex Tourism Case

TUCSON - A former superintendent with a Tucson school district, Albert Thomas Rogers, was sentenced Thursday on child sex tourism and child pornography charges.

A judge sentenced Rogers, now 52, to 8 years and 4 months in federal prison, followed by lifetime supervised release. Rogers was convicted of attempted travel with intent to engage in sex with a minor and possession of child pornography.

Rogers, while working as Superintendent of the Tanque Verde Unified School District in 2009, attempted to travel to Mexico in order to have sex with an adolescent boy.

Rogers admitted to collecting child pornography, including a sexually-explicit video of a boy as young as 5, and to booking a sex tourism visit to Mexico.

On June 19, 2009, he met someone in Yuma whom he believed was the driver for the sex tourism business, but was actually an undercover ICE agent.

Rogers paid the driver $260 to cover the costs of travel to Mexico, hotel, and sex with a young boy.

On June 24, 2009, federal agents obtained a warrant and searched Rogers' Tucson residence. They found nearly 1000 images and nearly 100 video files containing child pornography. Rogers resigned from his position with the school district shortly after his arrest.

"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," said U.S. Attorney Dennis K. Burke. "Now Rogers will pay a price for predatory behavior."