A former elementary school teacher from Southern California was found guilty of collecting hundreds of sexual abuse materials for children and received a prison sentence as a result.
The United States Attorney’s Office reports that Steven Pilar, who is 47 years old and hails from Las Vegas, was a teacher at the San Gabriel Valley school in the Hacienda La Puente Unified School District. He was responsible for teaching fifth grade students.
While Pilar was residing in Victorville between the months of February and April of the year 2020, he utilized BitTorrent, a piece of software that allows users to share digital files, in order to download films and photographs of child pornography from the internet onto his personal computer.
Approximately 444 movies and photographs depicting minors participating in sexually explicit behavior were allegedly received and downloaded by him, and he “knowingly possessed the videos for a time before deleting them,” according to the information provided by the prosecution.
Pilar was taken into custody in April of 2020 on state charges; however, those charges were eventually withdrawn so that a federal case could be prosecuted, according to the officials.
The charges against him were brought in August of 2024, and they included two counts of receiving child pornography and two counts of possessing child pornography. In December of 2024, he entered a guilty plea to the charge of possessing child pornography on two separate occasions.
“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,” the prosecution stated in a sentencing brief. “The victims sustained significant harm as a result of his actions.” In point of fact, when [Pilar] downloaded and viewed the CSAM, he participated in a process that involves the victims being re-victimized on an ongoing basis.
On the 28th of March, Pilar was given a sentence of four years in federal government prison.
Martin Estrada, the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, stated that protection of minors from sexual predators is of the utmost importance, and that his office will not rest in its efforts to pursue those who commit these crimes.
Former Southern California elementary school teacher sentenced in child porn case.
