By Jennifer Squires
From MediaNews
Article dated: 04/20/2007

A Santa Cruz man will serve more than four years in prison for sexually abusing a 14-year-old boy while working as a Peace Corps volunteer in Costa Rica.

A U.S. District Court judge handed down the sentence to 39-year-old Timothy Ronald Obert on Monday.

Obert is one of the first people convicted under a four-year-old federal law that seeks to crack down on the child-sex tourism industry.

Obert, who was a Peace Corps volunteer in Costa Rica from September 2001 to July 2003, was arrested at his Santa Cruz home and indicted in June 2004. As part of a plea deal, Obert admitted in February 2006 to one count of having `illicit sexual contact` with the boy while he was in the country as a Peace Corps volunteer working with PANI, the country’s child welfare agency.

The indictment alleged Obert performed oral sex on the boy and provided him with money, drugs and alcohol. He faced up to 15 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and a requirement he register as a sex offender. (more…)