Teacher Pleads Guilty to Child Porn Charge

A longtime Los Angeles County schoolteacher pleaded guilty Monday to a federal charge of possessing child pornography, according to the United States attorney’s office.

Paul Alphonse Kreutzer, 62, of Canyon Country, now faces up to five years in prison, but under his plea agreement, which is not binding on the court, he will probably receive a sentence of between 27 and 33 months, said Thom Mrozek, spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office.

Kreutzer was a teacher at Liggett Street Elementary School in Panorama City at the time of his arrest in March last year. A federal investigation into a child pornography Web site traced the electronic trail left by users, and a search of Kreutzer’s home computer showed that he had downloaded sexually explicit images of children, according to the FBI.

Kreutzer, who taught at public and parochial schools in the Los Angeles area from 1972 until his arrest last year, also faces molestation charges in state court. Last week in Van Nuys Superior Court, he was ordered to stand trial on 30 molestation-related offenses after 10 alleged victims testified against him. Some of the victims, who were also his students, are now women in their 30s and 40s.

Kreutzer worked at three parochial schools in the 1970s and 1980s, including Our Lady of Peace in North Hills and Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Newhall, according to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Since 1986, Kreutzer has been employed by the Los Angeles Unified School District, at Vena Avenue Elementary School in Pacoima until 1991 and at Sunland Elementary School from 1991 to 1996, after which he joined the the Liggett faculty. He was put on unpaid leave by the LAUSD after his arrest.

He is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Dickran Tevrizian on May 7.