Ulises Rodriguez, a 36-year-old former Miami-Dade firefighter, will avoid jail time for allegedly sending sexually explicit text messages and pictures to a 17-year-old boy. The boy later turned up dead, though his cause of death has not yet been made known, and Rodriguez played no part in the death. Rodriguez will instead enter a 12-month program to avoid a criminal record.
The text messages were found on the boys cellphone after he turned up dead in June. Rodriguez sent messages to the boy, like, "I wanna (expletive) a young guy, like 15 or 16," and "When we having a threesome or have someone watch us (expletive)?"
Some of the messages may have referred to encounters between the fireman and the boy, but Rodriguez never faces charges for any physical contact he had with the boy.
Shortly after his arrest on 17 felony counts of transmitting harmful information to a minor, Rodriguez was relieved of service by the Miami-Dade Fire Department.
Now, Rodriguez has agreed to a deal according to CBS Miami. He has agreed to plead guilty to lesser charges of child abuse no great harm. As part of the deal, Rodriguez will have to undergo a program for mentally disordered sex offenders. The boy's father is in agreement with terms of the deal.
Rodriguez's lawyers argued that their client did not actually know that the boy was underage.
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