A convicted sex offender who had traveled to Cambodia allegedly to have sex with a minor was returned to the United States to face trial in Los Angeles, the FBI said Monday night.
Michael James Dodd, 59, who taught English in Cambodia, had sex with a 14-year-old girl and was seen with her on several occasions in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, according to an affidavit for arrest filed in federal court.
In 2002, Dodd pleaded guilty in Saipan to five counts of sexual abuse of a child after he was accused of inappropriately touching 13 female students at an elementary school where he taught, an FBI agent said in the affidavit. Dodd served time in prison and was placed on probation for 15 years.
Agents in the FBI’s Los Angeles office handled the case because they are working with the Cambodian government and non-governmental agencies to identify and prosecute U.S. citizens who travel to that country to have sex with minors, FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said.
Dodd is expected to appear Tuesday before a magistrate in federal court in Los Angeles.
— Robert J. Lopez
Photo: KTLA