A former Burbank elementary school teacher already facing state sex-crime charges pleaded guilty Thursday to federal criminal charges for sexually exploiting a 15-year-old former student by producing pornographic images of her.
Sean David Sigler, 55, of Burbank pleaded guilty to two felony counts of production of child pornography during a closed hearing in Los Angeles federal court, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Sigler, whom a federal grand jury indicted in May 2018, previously taught fifth-graders at Bret Harte Elementary School in Burbank and at Gardner Street Elementary School in Hollywood.
According to the criminal complaint, Sigler became involved in the victim’s personal life after the child left Sigler’s classroom. He then used his position as former teacher, mentor and father figure to gain the trust of the victim and her parent. Sigler then exploited that trust to gain sexual access to the girl.
Over the course of 15 months, Sigler regularly transported the victim to his home, where he gave her alcohol and pills and then photographed and filmed his sexual activity with her. Sigler began having sex with the minor victim when she was just 15 years old, prosecutors said.
Sigler admitted in his plea agreement that he created multiple sexually explicit videos of the victim, and that he also took sexually explicit photographs of her, beginning when she was 15. He acknowledged that some of child pornography he created included images and videos involving sadomasochistic conduct.
Sigler also created child pornography by modifying a pornographic image of the minor victim’s body and digitally superimposing the face of a second underage former student. Sigler’s digital devices contained numerous images and videos of his sexual acts with the victim, as well as more than 5,000 images of child pornography depicting unknown pre-pubescent minors, according to court documents.
As part of his plea agreement, Sigler agreed to forfeit $271,506 in cash seized by the government, which constitutes the proceeds from the sale of the home where he produced child pornography.
U.S. District Judge John A. Kronstadt scheduled a Dec. 5 sentencing hearing, at which time Sigler will face a maximum sentence of 60 years in federal prison. Each count of production of child pornography also carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in federal prison.
Sigler was arrested in January 2018 after the 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. That case is pending.