A former elementary school teacher from the San Gabriel Valley was sentenced to four years in federal prison for possession of child pornography. Steven Pilar, 47, a resident of Las Vegas, received his sentence from United States District Judge Sunshine S. Sykes. In addition to the prison term, Pilar was also ordered to pay $115,000 in restitution.
Pilar admitted guilt in December 2024 for having child pornography in his possession. He has been detained in federal custody since August 2024. The evidence indicated that in early 2020, Pilar used his computer and a peer-to-peer file-sharing program known as BitTorrent to access and download more than 400 videos containing child sexual abuse material (CSAM) from the internet.
At the time he downloaded and stored these videos, Pilar was fully aware of their content, which included explicit depictions of actual children, some as young as under 12 years of age. The material also involved the sexual exploitation of toddlers and infants, along with sadistic and masochistic acts.
During the time of these offenses, Pilar was employed with the Hacienda La Puente Unified School District as a fifth-grade teacher. Since then, Pilar has ceased employment at the school. He was initially arrested on state charges in April 2020, which were subsequently dismissed to allow federal prosecution to proceed.
“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,” remarked prosecutors in a sentencing memorandum. They highlighted the "perpetual re-victimization" of the victims as a consequence of Pilar's actions.
The investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation alongside the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department. Assistant United States Attorney Joshua J. Lee from the General Crimes Section was responsible for prosecuting the case.