CARLSBAD — A photographer previously sentenced in San Diego County for sexually assaulting teenage girls during modeling sessions at a rented Carlsbad residence pleaded guilty Tuesday in Oregon to federal charges of producing child sexual abuse material.
Robert Koester, who was sentenced by a Vista judge in 2019 to 25 years in state prison, pleaded guilty Tuesday to eight counts in two separate federal cases — one concerning crimes in his home state of Oregon and another related to crimes in San Diego County.
A plea agreement dated last December states he also intended to plead guilty in two separate state cases in Oregon’s Yamhill County, where he faced charges of rape and causing another person to ingest a controlled substance.
Portland-based television station KGW reported that Koester was sentenced last month to 50 years in state prison in those cases, which involved sexual assaults against seven models.
Koester was arrested in Carlsbad in late 2018.
In his San Diego County case, he pleaded guilty to nearly two dozen felony counts related to raping and inappropriately touching the victims — some of whom were drugged and unconscious during the abuse — as well as creating child sexual abuse material involving the girls.
His plea agreement in the federal cases states that after his arrest, a search of devices found in his Carlsbad apartment uncovered child sexual abuse material involving two victims.
A subsequent search of his home and photo studio in Carlton, Oregon, revealed additional material, including “sexually explicit images and videos of the minor victims,” such as videos of Koester engaging in sex acts with victims who appeared to be unconscious, the plea agreement states.
Vials of a liquid substance seized by police were later tested and found to contain substances used in so-called “date rape” drugs.
Koester is scheduled to be sentenced in June in the federal cases.
