LA Firefighter Who Shared Child Porn While On Duty Is Sentenced

LOS ANGELES, CA — An ex-Los Angeles city firefighter was sentenced Monday to 42 months behind bars for using a peer-to-peer file-sharing program to amass child pornography.

Luis Gutierrez, 50, of Chino Hills, was also ordered by U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner to pay a $15,000 fine, register for life as a sex offender, serve a lifetime period of supervised release and pay restitution to be determined by the court.

The judge ordered Gutierrez taken into custody immediately after the hearing in Los Angeles federal court.

In pre-sentencing papers, prosecutors described the illegal material as "involving minors under the age of 12 engaged in sexually explicit conduct" and portraying "sadistic or masochistic content."

As a firefighter, Gutierrez "violated the public trust by accessing child pornography on the Ares (file-sharing) network from his fire station postings while on duty," according to the document.

Gutierrez was indicted in February 2016 by a federal grand jury on two counts of receiving child pornography and one count of possessing child pornography obtained through the use of the peer-to-peer program.

An engineer with the Los Angeles City Fire Department at the time, Gutierrez used Internet connections at three different fire stations in 2013 to download the child porn found on his computer, according to prosecutors. Gutierrez pleaded in November to the possession count.

"Today I stand before you ashamed and embarrassed by my actions," the defendant told the court Monday afternoon. "I should've walked away from (child porn) at my first sight of it. I will continue to get help as long as I need it."

In arguing for a sentence of less than three years, defense attorney Craig Harbaugh told the judge that Gutierrez worked for the city for 20 years.

"He voluntarily abandoned his (illegal) activity before being discovered by law enforcement," the attorney said. "He made efforts to delete the offending material -- which shows a very low probability of recidivism."

On Nov. 12, 2013, investigators executed a search warrant at Gutierrez's home, seizing his laptop computer and external hard drive.

Court papers show that 600 illicit images and 11 illegal videos were discovered on the computer ware, including at least one child porn clip that originated in Russia.

City News Service; Photo: Shutterstock