Caretaker gets life for sex abuse of disabled children

SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — A nursing assistant who sexually assaulted severely disabled children at a Southern California group home was sentenced to life in federal prison, authorities said Tuesday.

Steve Rodriguez, 38, of Pomona, was sentenced last Friday for what a judge at the hearing called “unspeakable acts,” the U.S. Justice Department said in a statement.

Rodriguez was a nighttime caretaker at the home from 2016 to 2020 when he produced videos of himself sexually abusing four children, three of whom were patients at the home, including an 8-year-old, the statement said.

“Rodriguez had a duty … to keep his victims safe and alive, but he instead violated that trust in the most despicable way,” U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said in a statement.

Last year, Rodriguez pleaded guilty to two counts of obtaining custody of a minor for the purposes of producing child pornography, five counts of production of child pornography, and one count of enticement of a minor to engage in criminal sexual activity.

Also last year, two men who received the material from Rodriguez were convicted of receiving and possessing child pornography.

They will be sentenced next month and could face up to 20 years each in federal prison.