Former Arizona state lawmaker Otoniel “Tony” Navarrete was sentenced to prison on Friday following his conviction for sexual misconduct with a minor. The Maricopa County Superior Court judge handed down a term of one year of incarceration. Navarrete will also serve ten years of supervised probation.
Navarrete was found guilty of one count of sexual misconduct with a child in February. The victim, a boy who had been living with Navarrete, said he was victimized from age 12 or 13 to 15.
The former state senator resigned amid the allegations. He was acquitted of separate accusations of child molestation and engaging in sexual conduct with a minor. Prosecutors dropped another charge of attempting to commit molestation of a child during the trial.
Navarrete was first elected as the state representative for Arizona‘s 30th District in 2016. After one term, he secured a seat in the state senate in 2018. He intends to appeal his conviction.
Multiple Democrat politicians have been hit with child sexual abuse charges in recent years. In 2022, Robert Jacob, a California mayor and Black Lives Matter activist whose “political ascendancy” was praised by The New York Times, was hit with 11 felony charges and one misdemeanor charge for sexually assaulting a minor. He was convicted in 2023. Dennis “Denny” Doyle, a former Oregon mayor and Joe Biden donor, was convicted of possessing child pornography in 2022. He was imprisoned in 2023, and reimprisoned in 2024 for violating his probation.
