EL MIRAGE, Ariz. — Editor's note: this story contains some content that is graphic in nature.
A candidate for a job as an assistant at the El Mirage Police Department was arrested and charged with sexual exploitation of a minor following a pre-employment screening.
According to court records, 25-year-old Sergio Armondo Celaya was participating in a pre-employment polygraph test on Feb. 6 when he revealed that he had a video of his ex-girlfriend from when she was 16 years old having sex with him he was 17 years old. Celaya said he kept the video until he was 18 years old when the relationship ended and frequented a website where several girls had sent him videos of 16-year-old-to-17-year-old girls having sex.
Celaya proceeded to state that one of the videos was of a 15-year-old showering and that he visited a website in 2020 that showed a 16-year-old performing a sexual act. He also revealed that he possessed a hard drive at his residence that contained thousands of videos and pictures pornographic in nature, including one that featured 12-to-13-year-old boys.
When questioned by detectives, Celaya said he had photographs of his girlfriend when she was in high school and that he would trade photos of girls, who were possibly underage, with a guy on Snapchat like "trading cards." He also revealed that he went on a website called Omegle, where you can speak to strangers and share media content with them anonymously and that he would exchange pornographic videos and photos, some of which included underage children having sex, on the site.
Celaya also admitted that he stored some of the videos and photos on a flash drive, laptop and cellphone and that he estimated some of the children in them were between 11 and 15 years old. Detectives seized his cell phone and he willingly unlocked it using his passcode.
Celaya said that he knew it was illegal to possess, keep and/or view the photos he had described and that he had often wanted to delete the material or throw it away, but that he never did.
Detectives executed a search warrant of Celaya's residence, in which they located a laptop, multiple flash drives and a tablet exactly where he said they would be. Ultimately, the detectives were able to locate four files including child pornography featuring children who appeared to be as young as five years old during a preliminary search, as the flash drives have thousands of files saved.
Celaya was booked an charged with a second-degree felony of sexual exploitation of a minor.
