Sex Offender
Seeks OK To Move
To Costa Rica
By Kaustuv Basu,
Floridatoday.com
VIERA — A
convicted
pedophile who
wants to move to
Costa Rica will
have to wait
until his
defense attorney
shows proof
there is a
system there to
monitor his
activities, a
judge said
Friday.
"I'm looking for
an apparatus in
that country
that is the
functional
equivalent of
our law," said
Judge George
Maxwell.
Tom Mastin, who
is now 74,
molested a
12-year-old boy
in 1999 near
Cocoa and
subsequently
fled to Costa
Rica,
authorities
said. The boy
was on a soccer
team coached by
Mastin.
He was forced to
leave Costa Rica
in 2007 when
authorities
there learned of
the warrant for
his arrest in
the
United States.
He was brought
back to Brevard
and pleaded
guilty to
charges of lewd
and lascivious
molestation the
next year.
However,
authorities
said, he
absconded to
Costa Rica again
in February 2008
and before being
transported back
to Brevard the
next month.
In March 2009,
Mastin was
sentenced to two
years in prison,
one year of
house arrest and
12 years of
probation that
included wearing
a GPS monitor.
He spent only a
few weeks in
prison because
he got credit
for time spent
at the Brevard
County Detention
Center, said
Prosecutor Julia
Lynch.
Mastin, who is
an American
citizen and
lives near
Sharpes, said in
the courtroom
that he wants to
move to the
Central American
country because
he has a partner
and two children
there. In Costa
Rica, he coaches
a soccer team
with players in
the age range of
18 to 25, Mastin
said. His
attorney, Todd
Deratanay, said
Mastin also owns
a business in
the country.
Lynch argued in
the courtroom
Friday that if
Mastin were to
move, the state
would lose the
ability to
monitor him.
Lynch said the
Brevard State
Attorney's
Office has not
faced a
situation like
this before.
In 1984, Mastin
pleaded guilty
to misdemeanor
charges in
Pinellas County
for "unnatural
behavior with a
child."
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