BURBANK (CNS) - A former Burbank elementary school teacher already facing state sex-crime charges is expected to plead guilty today to federal charges alleging he used two 15-year-old ex-students to produce child pornography.
Sean David Sigler, 55, of Burbank has agreed to plead guilty in Los Angeles federal court to two counts of production of child pornography. Each count carries a sentence of 15 to 30 years behind bars, according to Sigler's plea agreement.
U.S. District Judge John A. Kronstadt is expected to set a sentencing date after Sigler pleads guilty.
Federal prosecutors allege Sigler used his position as the girls' former fifth-grade teacher to gain their trust, then “exploited that trust to gain sexual access” to them when they reached the age of 15. He allegedly brought the girls -- who are now 19 years old -- to his home on separate occasions and photographed sexual activity.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, investigators found numerous photos and images of sexual acts with the girls, along with thousands of child- porn images of unknown minors, non-pornographic photos of young girls in his classroom and images he had obtained from former students' social media accounts.
Sigler was arrested in January 2018 after an ex-student accused him of engaging in inappropriate sexual contact with her when she was 15. The following month, he pleaded not guilty in Los Angeles Superior Court to nearly two-dozen felony charges including oral copulation of a person under 18, using a minor for sex acts, unlawful sexual intercourse of a person under 16, sodomy of a person under 18, and two counts of unlawful sexual intercourse of a person under 18, according to the District Attorney's Office.
Sigler worked as a teacher for the Los Angeles Unified School District from March 1998 to June 2016. He then went on to teach fifth grade for the Burbank Unified School District at Bret Harte Elementary. He was placed on leave by the district when arrested and then terminated from the school. He remains in federal custody.
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