Key West liveaboard boater faces up to 15 years in state prison

A Key West liveaboard boater faces up to 15 years in state prison following his December 5 conviction on a charge of sexual battery.

A six-person jury found Miguel Pestano, 44, guilty after two hours of deliberation. Monroe County Circuit Court Judge Mark Jones presided over the case, prosecuted by assistant state attorneys Patrick Flanigan and Christine Poist.

Pestano was arrested on February 12, 2018, after a Monroe County Sheriff’s Office investigation into the January 6, 2018, offense, which happened on Pestano’s boat moored off Key Haven. The victim is a Marathon woman who reported the battery after seeking treatment at Fishermen’s Community Hospital.

The victim told Sheriff’s Office Detective Danielle Malone that on the morning of the attack, she was walking near U.S. 1 and South Roosevelt Boulevard to the nearby Sunset Marina, where she planned to spend the night. While en route, she encountered Pestano. Pestano eventually offered to let her stay on his boat.

As they kayaked out to Pestano’s boat, the kayak flipped and she swam to the boat. She hung her clothes to dry and wrapped herself in towels and blankets, and later a shirt.

She went to sleep and was awakened in the middle of the night to Pestano molesting her. She told him to stop but he forced himself upon her “at least three times.” He told her she should be “grateful” for a place to stay and to “stop playing the victim.” The next morning, they got a ride back to shore and she was dropped at the Key Haven boat ramp. She reported the battery the next day, unable to do so earlier because she was so upset.

When shown a photo lineup of possible suspects, the victim had an “immediate reaction” when seeing Pestano’s photo and ID’d him as her attacker.

When intetviewed by police, Pestano first denied having anyone on his boat before claiming the last person on his boat with him was a female friend. Under further questioning, he changed his story again, saying he had consensual sex with the victim when she was on his boat. He told police he initially lied because he thought “an ex-girlfriend was setting him up.”

Sentencing is set for January 11 before Judge Jones.

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