California elementary school teacher charged for possessing child sex abuse material, 400 images, videos

A former elementary school teacher from California has been indicted by a grand jury on charges relating to child sexual abuse material. According to the indictment, he had downloaded 400 different images and videos of the child sexual abuse material.

47-year-old Steven Pilar of Las Vegas was employed as a teacher at a school in La Puente, California in 2020 when he knowingly received and downloaded over 400 images and videos of child sexual abuse material.

In July, Pilar was indicted by a federal grand jury and was arrested in Las Vegas earlier in August. He is scheduled for an arraignment on Saturday relating to his federal grand jury indictment. He was initially arrested in 2020 for the suspected crimes and placed on leave as a result, per the Daily Press. He no longer works at the school.

The state charges from his earlier arrest were dropped so that federal charges could be pursued instead. Pilar has been charged with two counts of receiving child pornography and two counts of possessing child pornography, according to the Department of Justice.

“This defendant, whose former job put him in a position of trust with children, is accused of participating in an underground market that trades on the sexual exploitation of kids,” said United States Attorney Martin Estrada. “Protecting children from sexual predators is critical and my office will be unrelenting in our efforts to punish those who commit these crimes.”

The FBI and the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department are investigating Pilar’s previous actions. If convicted, Pilar would face a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in federal prison and a statutory maximum of 80 years.