A former Arizona state senator received a one-year prison sentence after being found guilty of sexual misconduct with a minor.

Former state Sen. Otoniel “Tony” Navarrete (D-Phoenix) faced multiple sex charges involving a minor.

However, he was only found guilty on one count.

“During sentencing, a Maricopa County Superior Court judge ordered one year in prison followed by 10 years of supervised release for his single count of child sex crime. He is also now required to register as a sex offender,” AZFamily reports.

WATCH:

Per AZFamily:

Earlier this year, a jury deemed Navarrete not guilty on one count of molestation of a child and sexual conduct with a minor but declared Navarrete guilty on a separate charge of sexual conduct with a minor.

A mistrial was declared in Oct. 2023, when jurors at the time were split on a decision about the allegations against Navarrete. The former Democratic politician was arrested in 2019 and indicted in 2021 on seven child sex crime charges.

Court documents at the time stated Navarrete sexually touched the victim multiple times over a few years. Navarrete reportedly apologized to the victim and regretted his actions in a phone call recorded by police.

In that call, he reportedly said he “wasn’t well” when the abuse happened. He resigned less than a week after his arrest, during which he released a statement saying he “adamantly denied all allegations” and would prove his innocence. Ever since, Navarrete denied the allegations.

Fox News reports:

There was a fourth charge of attempting to commit molestation of a child, which was dismissed by a motion filed by prosecutors on Feb. 22.

The first-term Democrat from Phoenix was arrested in August 2021 after allegations surfaced that he had sexual misconduct with a minor in 2019.

The station reported that the allegations involved a boy he was living with over a period of several years, who accused Navarrete of touching him inappropriately when he was 12 or 13.

The sexual misconduct reportedly continued until the boy was 15.

Navarrete resigned from his post because of the allegations and was replaced by then-State Rep. Raquel Terán.

Navarrete, 35, was elected as the state representative for Arizona’s 30th District in 2016. He served one term before being elected to the state Senate in 2018.

 

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