Former San Gabriel Valley elementary school teacher indicted on child porn charges

A former elementary school teacher in La Puente has been charged with two counts of receiving child pornography and two counts of possession, the U.S. Attorney’s office in Los Angeles said Friday.

Steven Pilar, 47, had been scheduled for arraignment on a federal grand jury indictment in U.S. District Court in downtown L.A. on Friday. He had been indicted in July and arrested earlier this month in Las Vegas, where he resides. At the time, he was ordered jailed without bond.

The indictment alleged that Pilar used BitTorrent, a digital file-sharing protocol, to knowingly receive 400-plus videos and images of child sex abuse material in February and April 2020. At the time, Pilar taught at a La Puente elementary school; he no longer works there, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.

“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 Martin Estrada, U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, in a statement. “Protecting children from sexual predators is critical and my office will be unrelenting in our efforts to punish those who commit these crimes.”

Pilar would face a mandatory minimum sentence of at least five years in federal prison if he is convicted. The case was investigated by the FBI and the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.