SANTA ANA (CNS) - A former Orange County social worker was sentenced today to eight years in federal prison for sharing child pornography online.
U.S. District Judge Corman Carney also ordered Carlos Castillo, 62, of Santa Ana to pay $40,000 in restitution to the victims.
Castillo, who pleaded guilty in January to a single count of distribution of child pornography, worked at Orange County's Social Services Agency from May 2002 until January 2020.
Through an online child pornography group, Castillo posted three video files that included the sexual assaults of prepubescent children, including infants and toddlers, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Castillo admitted he possessed 1,027 videos and 914 images of child pornography, prosecutors said.
Castillo's wife wrote a letter to Carney on her husband's behalf. She said she is a paraplegic and depends on Castillo to do many parental tasks for their two teenage daughters.
The defendant “has had to take on most of the responsibility of providing care for our daughters, and making sure that our needs are always met,'' Guadalupe Juarez-Castillo wrote. “I have always been impressed with his level of commitment, love and sacrifices he has made for me and our daughters.''
She said her husband's imprisonment “will have a severe impact on our family and our chances for survival. Our daughters who have a strong, loving bond with their father are scared and worried their father will contract COVID-19, or be hurt by other inmates if he were to be sent to prison.''
She said her husband's crimes “go against everything I believe in life,'' and she was “hurt and shocked'' by them, but added that he is a “good person, a good husband, and a wonderful father.''
Castillo engaged in counseling and “rehabilitative services on his own in an effort to address his personal problems and mend the suffering he has caused so many people,'' his wife said.
Castillo's brother the pastor of a Westminster church, said his brother has been involved in food giveaways to the needy and homeless in the area.
“My brother is a good man and I believe he will be making the right decision in his life and I believe in him,'' Gilbert Castillo wrote in a letter to the judge.
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