A former Orange County teacher and youth coach was indicted Friday by a federal grand jury in Los Angeles on child pornography and child sex tourism charges accusing him of traveling to China to have sex with a 16-year-old and taking sexually explicit photos of the child.
Ezequiel Christopher Barragan of Aliso Viejo, previously a Spanish teacher at Dana Hills High School and a youth baseball coach, was charged in a three-count indictment alleging he produced child pornography, traveled with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor, and engaged in illicit sexual conduct with a minor in a foreign place, according to Thom Mrozek, the public affairs officer for the United States Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.
Barragan traveled in August 2009 to China, where he allegedly coerced a boy to engage in sexual conduct so that he could produce “a visual depiction of such conduct,” Mrozek said.
The charge of producing child pornography carries a mandatory minimum prison sentence of 15 years and a maximum of 30 years, Mrozek said. The charges of international travel and engaging in illicit sexual activity each carry a statutory maximum sentence of 30 years in federal prison, Mrozek said.
Barragan is serving a state prison sentence in an unrelated case and is due to be arraigned in coming weeks.
Details about the conviction that landed him in prison were not immediately available.
— City News Service