A former Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy was sentenced Friday to 40 years in prison for sexually assaulting four girls between the ages of 4 and 13, the LA County District Attorney’s Office said.
Sean Essex, 53, pleaded guilty to three counts of continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14 and one count of lewd and lascivious acts on a child under 14. committing a crime, an accusation that leads to a special increase in sentence.
Essex, a 22-year veteran of the sheriff’s department, also admitted in his guilty plea that one victim was “particularly vulnerable,” according to a news release from the district attorney’s office. Prosecutors have not released any further details about this circumstance.
The former deputy was convicted of sexually assaulting one of the victims in 2006 and then for abusing three more girls between 2013 and 2022, when he was arrested in April that year. At the time, he was assigned to the department’s Training Office.
In August 2022, he was charged with more than 30 criminal offenses, including 18 counts of oral sex acts with a child, 12 counts of lewd acts with a child under 14 years old, two counts of sexual acts with a child under 14 years old and one count of possession of child pornography.
Had he been convicted on all charges, prosecutors say he could have faced life in prison.
Although Essex was not criminally charged at the time, the sheriff’s department fired him after a criminal and internal investigation in 2018. has announced his resignation was quashed by the Civil Service Commission, which ordered that he be reinstated as a deputy and member of LASD. After he was charged with more than 30 counts of sex crimes, the department fired him again.
At the time, sheriff’s officials said they were still working to eliminate his pay.
The dozens of initial charges included the 2006 case, for which prosecutors had previously declined to bring charges.
When Essex was charged that year, the district attorney’s office was led by Steve Cooley, who served as the county’s chief prosecutor from 2000 to 2012. An attorney for the family of the other three victims, whom he abused years later, told the Los Angeles Times it was “shocking” that the 2006 allegation was not investigated further and did not lead to criminal charges.
“It is absolutely shocking to us that the province did not do more in 2006 to investigate and bring this terrible perpetrator to justice,” attorney Spencer Lucas told the Times. “He was a dangerous predator, and this whole horrible abuse that these poor little girls went through should have been stopped, and it should never have happened.”
The three victims were sisters and their mother had previously been in a romantic relationship with Essex, the Times reported.
In addition to decades behind bars, Essex must pay compensation to the victims and register as a sex offender. The amount he will pay is expected to be determined by the court later.
“The horrific sexual abuse inflicted on these young victims by Mr. in L.A. County. said in a news release from his office.
