Former teacher in San Gabriel Valley sentenced to 4 years for possession of child abuse videos

A former fifth grade teacher in the San Gabriel Valley was sentenced Friday to four years in federal prison for possession of more than 400 videos depicting sexual abuse of children.

According to prosecutors, Steven Pilar, a 47-year-old resident of Las Vegas, knowingly received and downloaded the videos using his computer and a peer-to-peer file-sharing program called BitTorrent at his former home in Victorville. The 444 videos showed abuse against a child under 12, an infant and a toddler, and prosecutors said Pilar knew what they depicted when he downloaded them. 

The crimes occurred in February and April of 2020, prosecutors said.

At the time, he was working as a fifth-grade teacher in the Hacienda La Puente Unified School District. 

He is no longer employed at the school.

He was arrested on state charges in April 2020 which were eventually dismissed so federal prosecutors could take over the case.

"His actions caused direct and significant harm to the victims in this case, and his offense is aggravated by fact that he was teaching young children at the time," reads a sentencing memorandum filed by federal prosecutors, saying his crimes carried out a "perpetual re-victimization of the victims."

Pilar has been in federal custody since last August and pleaded guilty to one count of possession of child pornography in December. 

When he was sentenced, U.S. District Judge Sunshine S. Sykes also ordered him to pay $115,000 in restitution.