Ex-LAPD Officer, Belmont Shore Resident Gets Eight Months for Child Porn Possession

A former Los Angeles Police Department officer, whose son is serving time for possessing child pornography, was sentenced today to eight months behind bars for the same crime.

John Robert Deegan, 55, who lives in Belmont Shore, must also serve four months in home detention, pay a $3,000 fine and spend seven years in supervised release.

Last year, the defendant's 29-year-old son, Jonathon Deegan, was sentenced in Los Angeles federal court to eight years in prison and 30 years of supervised release.

The elder Deegan was given what is considered a lenient sentence, U.S. District Judge Jacqueline H. Nguyen said, because there were a number of factors in play.

Nguyen called attention to the small number of illicit images found on Deegan's computer and that the pictures were “not as egregious” as material found in cases like this one.

However, she added, each time such an image is downloaded, “the child is victimized again.”

The judge also brought up Deegan's “lifetime of exceptional service to the community ... in a very tough neighborhood” and the minute likelihood he would commit any future crimes of the same nature.

“This is a difficult sentencing,” Nguyen said, noting that Deegan's background as a police officer “makes him vulnerable'' to abuse while in prison.”

Deegan's son, Jonathon, was sentenced in April to eight years in federal prison and 30 years of supervised release. They reportedly found up to 600 images on Jonathan Deegan's computer of children, some as young as 4 years old, involved in sex acts with adults, according to United States Attorney's Office spokesperson Thom Mrozek.

Last September, a Los Angeles federal grand jury indicted the father and son in court.  The elder Deegan was with the Los Angeles Police Department for more than 20 years before he was put on paid leave in March 2009, and relieved of duty one year ago, said Mrozek.

According to court documents, FBI agents first suspected the son of receiving and sending pornographic images and video on the internet. When they served a search warrant on the Deegan home in Belmont Shore last year, they found child pornography on the father's computer as well, Mrozek said. Jonathan Deegan had been charged with receiving, possessing and distributing child pornography, and his father was charged with receipt and possession, the spokesman said.

Investigators were able to identify some of the children in the pictures, none of whom are from Southern California, and the Deegans are not suspected of ever contacting them, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

City News Service contributed to this report.