Dagoberto Miquel Pena, once a Punta Gorda Middle School PE teacher and basketball coach at Charlotte High, now faces 60 years in federal prison for producing and possessing child pornography. The judge handed down the sentence on May 4, 2026. After he serves his time, Pena will remain under lifetime supervision and has to register as a sex offender.
The FBI’s Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force uncovered disturbing details. Between October 2024 and February 2026, Pena coaxed at least two minors into sexually explicit acts, which he recorded and photographed. Everything unraveled when a parent found explicit messages on their child’s phone in April 2025. That sparked his first arrest. A second followed in July 2025 after investigators found another victim.
Search warrants for Pena’s phones turned up a trove of images and videos documenting his abuse, with some showing the victims expressing discomfort while he continued recording. He pled guilty to multiple federal charges: two counts of producing child pornography, one count of receiving, and one count of possessing child pornography.
Pena’s legal battles continue, as he still faces separate state charges in Florida, accused of having a sexual relationship with a student beginning when she was just 14. Charlotte County has that case now.
Once authorities arrested him in 2025, the school district moved quickly, placing him on administrative leave and beginning the process to fire him.
