ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – A Hunter’s Creek Middle School teacher who was questioned about the disappearance of 13-year-old Madeline Soto last year is facing federal charges in a separate sex crime investigation, court records show.
Italo Rafael Brett Bonini, 25, was arrested by the FBI on Wednesday.
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According to a criminal complaint, Brett Bonini used the social media platform Discord to entice an 8-year-old Maryland boy to reveal his genitalia and engage in sexual acts over a video chat. The incident allegedly occurred in January.
Brett Bonini, a chorus instructor, was among several Hunter’s Creek Middle School employees and students who were interviewed by investigators about Soto’s disappearance last February, court records show.
Soto was a seventh-grade student at the school.
Stephan Sterns, who once dated Soto’s mother, has pleaded not guilty to sexually molesting and murdering Soto. He is the only person facing charges stemming from the teen’s disappearance and death.
[TIMELINE: Here’s where things stand in the Madeline Soto case so far]
Sterns told investigators he dropped Soto off near the school on the morning of February 26, but the 13-year-old never arrived on campus.
Three days after Soto was reported missing, a detective with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office questioned Brett Bonini about Soto, who was enrolled in his sixth-period class.
“She usually is very participatory. She’s usually up performing with us. She doesn’t miss a concert,” Brett Bonini told the detective during a brief six-minute interview. “She just seemed pretty normal. Very happy. Easy making of friends.”
On the day of Soto’s disappearance, Brett Bonini said he received a message from Soto’s mother on the school district’s communication system informing him that her daughter did not make it home.
Brett Bonini said he sent a reply stating that the teen had been marked absent in her classes that day.
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Brett Bonini also said Soto never discussed her home life and did not disclose any information about being abused or suicidal, an audio recording of the interview shows.
“It didn’t seem like it to me that she could be the type to run away,” Brett Bonini said.
There is no indication in publicly available law enforcement records that detectives investigating Soto’s disappearance had concerns about Brett Bonini.
Likewise, the federal complaint alleging Brett Bonini enticed a minor boy for sex acts makes no mention of the Soto investigation.
“I do not see any cases in our system with that name,” a spokesperson for the state attorney’s office told News 6 in response to questions about Brett Bonini. “The case against Stephan Sterns is still open, and we cannot comment on active investigations.”
A spokesperson for the Kissimmee Police Department tells News 6 that the agency has concluded its portion of the investigation, and there are no additional charges.
Brett Bonini, who remained in federal custody Friday, had not yet entered a plea in his criminal case.
Investigators claim Brett Bonini offered an 8-year-old boy and his younger brother “Robux” — an in-game currency for the popular children’s video game “Roblox” — to perform sex acts for him via computer.
According to the criminal complaint, Brett Bonini told federal investigators that he recently deleted his Discord account because he was “disgusted with himself”.
“During the interview but before discussing the details of the allegations or genders of the victims, Brett Bonini stated that he was ‘not even gay’ and that he ‘fell into temptation that I should not have. I’m not a sick individual, I made a mistake,’” the complaint states.
The principal of Hunter’s Creek Middle School informed student families Wednesday that an employee had been arrested and would not be returning to the school during investigations being conducted by law enforcement and the school district’s Office of Professional Standards.
The full interview audio has been attached to this story and can be listened to below.
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