Arizona man admits to having child porn during interview for police job

An Arizona man admitted to possessing child porn while he was interviewing for a job with a police department.

Sergio Celaya, 25, reportedly went on an interview for a police assistant job with the El Mirage Police Department on Monday.

During the interview, Celaya took a polygraph test. Celaya admitted that he still possessed sexual videos of his ex-girlfriend and himself from when they were teenagers, according to police.

Celaya reportedly told officers that he frequented a website where he procured sexually explicit videos involving underage girls.

According to AZ Family, "Celaya had a flash drive containing thousands of porn photos and videos, with one sexual video containing kids as young as 12-13 years old, court paperwork says."

Following the confession, the El Mirage Police Department secured a search warrant and searched Celaya's home. Detectives found four files containing child pornography involving children between the ages of 5 and 15 on his flash drives and laptop, court documents say. Investigators noted that the flash drives have thousands of images saved on them and are still in the process of analyzing them for illegal content.

Police said Celaya utilized a virtual private network to encrypt his internet and would visit an online chat website called Omegle – where he would receive child porn. Celaya told police that he understood that it was illegal to have child porn, according to court documents. He allegedly said that he wanted to delete the illegal photos and videos and then throw away the flash drive, but he didn't.

Celaya was booked into the Maricopa County Jail and charged with four counts of exploitation of a minor.

"My detectives acted swiftly once learning of the statements by the suspect. There is no place in any community for possessing this type of material or engaging in this type of behavior," El Mirage Police Chief Paul Marzocca said in a statement on Facebook.

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children’s CyberTipline received 29.3 million reports of suspected child sexual exploitation in 2021 – an increase of 35% from 2020. The CyberTipline accepts tips on suspected incidents of sexual exploitation of children online by the public and online electronic service providers.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!