Timothy Obert has been arrested and charged for allegedly having sex with a 14-year-old boy while in Costa Rica on a Peace Corps mission, authorities said



Timothy Obert has been arrested and charged for allegedly having sex with a 14-year-old boy while in Costa Rica on a Peace Corps mission, authorities said

Santa Cruz man arrested for sex with minor in Costa Rica

Associated Press

SAN JOSE, Calif. - A Santa Cruz man has been arrested and charged for allegedly having sex with a 14-year-old boy while in Costa Rica on a Peace Corps mission, authorities said Thursday.

Timothy Obert, 36, was indicted Wednesday by a federal grand jury in San Jose on one count of "traveling in foreign commerce and engaging in illicit sexual conduct with another person," according to the U.S. Justice Department's San Francisco office.

Obert was charged under a new type of federal "sex tourism" law enacted last year.

As a Peace Corps volunteer, Obert repeatedly sought and obtained positions working with underprivileged children, prosecutors said.

While on mission last year in Costa Rica, Obert gave the 14-year-old boy money, drugs and alcohol in conjunction with the sex acts, authorities said.

Obert remains jailed without bail and has a detention hearing set for next Monday.