Michael Koklich, 50, was sentenced by US District Judge Vaughn Walker on
Tuesday.
The sentence was agreed to in a plea bargain in which Koklich pleaded guilty in
December to one count of violating a US law that makes it a crime to engage in
so-called "sexual tourism" involving children. The charge to which he pleaded
was traveling to a foreign country and having sex with a minor.
Koklich was originally charged with a second count of engaging in sex with an
11-year-old girl, but that count was dropped as part of the agreement.
The judge ordered Koklich to pay $5,000 in restitution to each girl. Koklich
will also be required to register as a sex offender and be under supervised
release for five years after completing his prison term.
Koklich and his attorneys have previously said he lived eight to nine months
per year in Cambodia in recent years and during the summers sold Cambodian
handicrafts at Bay area stores and festivals.
When in the Bay Area, he lived in a recreational vehicle parked at various
locations including Santa Rosa, prosecutors said.
Koklich's defense attorney, Assistant Federal Public Defender Josh Cohen, said
in a sentencing memorandum, "This was a tremendous mistake that Mr. Koklich
very much regrets and for which he will pay dearly."
US Attorney Scott Schools said Koklich was initially investigated by officials
of a French non-governmental agency called Action Pour Les Enfants, or APLE,
based in Cambodia.
Koklich was arrested on February 17, 2006, after APLE investigators and
Cambodian police saw the 13-year-old and 11-year-old leave his apartment in
Phnom Penh. He was extradited to the United States in April 2006.
After being arrested, Koklich admitted to having sex with the two girls on
multiple occasions and also to previously having had sex with child prostitutes
in a brothel in Phnom Penh, according to a sentencing memorandum filed by
prosecutors.
Schools said Koklich also admitted to writing to his adult girlfriend in
Cambodia in November 2006, asking her to bribe witnesses, including the
victims, not to testify against him. The attempted bribery was a factor in the
calculation of his sentence under federal sentencing guidelines.
