A 24-year-old Desert Hot Springs man caught with hundreds of pornographic pictures and videos involving children pleaded guilty Thursday to two counts of possession of child porn and other offenses.
Victor Christopher Lascano admitted the felony charges, along with a sentence-enhancing allegation of being in possession of explicit material depicting minors younger than 12 years old, under a plea agreement with the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office. In exchange for his admissions, prosecutors agreed to drop an allegation of perpetrating a crime while on bail.
The plea deal was announced during a status hearing at the Larson Justice Center in Indio Thursday. Superior Court Judge Arthur Hester scheduled a sentencing hearing for June 12. There was no prospective sentence indicated.
Lascano remains held on $60,000 bail at the Smith Correctional Facility in Banning.
He was originally arrested in August 2022 following an investigation by the Desert Hot Springs Police Department and the county’s Child Exploitation Team, which combines resources from multiple agencies to ferret out offenders.
The investigation was focused on Lascano’s residence in the 66200 block of Flora Avenue, where warrants were served on Aug. 16, 2022.
“The defendant was found to be disseminating child porn through social media apps,” DHSPD Sgt. Christopher Saucier said in a bail-setting declaration filed immediately after Lascano’s arrest. “During a search of his residence, the defendant was found to be in possession of 600-plus images or videos containing child sexual abuse material on his cell phone and computer.”
The detective said Lascano “admitted downloading the videos and images and sending them via the Internet.”
There were concerns expressed about what Lascano might be capable of doing “to juvenile female relatives,” though none of them ever alleged inappropriate contact with him, according to Saucier.
Not long after his arrest, the defendant was granted permission to be on home detention, using a GPS device that monitored his whereabouts at all times, according to court documents. However, last fall, he was evidently caught downloading child porn again, court papers showed.
That resulted in him being re-arrested and locked up at the Banning jail in January.
Lascano had no documented prior felony convictions, only infractions from traffic violations.