A former Southern California elementary school teacher was sentenced to prison for possessing hundreds of child sex abuse material.
Steven Pilar, 47, of Las Vegas, formerly worked as a fifth grade teacher at the Hacienda La Puente Unified School District in the San Gabriel Valley school, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
In February and April of 2020, while living in Victorville, Pilar used BitTorrent, a digital file-sharing software, to download videos and images of child pornography from the web and onto his computer.
Prosecutors said he received and downloaded around 444 videos and images containing children engaging in sexually explicit conduct and “knowingly possessed the videos for a time before deleting them.”
In April 2020, Pilar was arrested on state charges, which were later dropped so a federal case could be pursued, officials said.
In August 2024, he was charged with two counts of receiving child pornography and two counts of possessing child pornography. In December 2024, he pleaded guilty to one count of possession of child pornography.
“His actions caused direct and significant harm to the victims in this case, and his offense is aggravated by the fact that he was teaching young children at the time,” prosecutors said in a sentencing memorandum. “In fact, when [Pilar] downloaded and viewed the CSAM, he took part of a perpetual re-victimization of the victims.”
On March 28, Pilar was sentenced to four years in federal prison.
“Protecting children from sexual predators is critical and my office will be unrelenting in our efforts to punish those who commit these crimes,” said U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada.
