Former officer pleads to porn

• By BILL LODGE
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Jun 17, 2008 - Page: 1B - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Former Baton Rouge police Lt. Paul G. Ruiz pleaded guilty Monday to one count of distributing child pornography, a conviction that will send him to federal prison for at least five years.

U.S. District Judge Ralph E. Tyson did not immediately schedule a sentencing hearing for the 26-year department veteran.

Ruiz, a 48-year-old resident of Denham Springs, resigned in March, only weeks before he was charged in federal court.

Police Chief Jeff LeDuff said the case surprised him and other officers.

“From our side, he [Ruiz] did a good job,” LeDuff said. “We didn’t know about this other side.

“It’s very unfortunate that this happened,” LeDuff said. “It’s sad for everybody involved.”

Fred Crifasi, Ruiz’s attorney, said people should remember his client was not accused of having improper contact with any child.

“It [the case} is not about soliciting a juvenile or enticing a juvenile to do anything,” Crifasi said. “That’s not what this case is about.”

U.S. Attorney David Dugas said people also should remember: “It’s not a victimless crime.”

Dugas said children in more than a hundred images FBI agents and Dallas police seized from Ruiz’s computer “are victimized over and over” when those images are distributed over the Internet.

Ruiz admitted in court records that at least one of the images he sent last year to an Oklahoma FBI agent posing as a porn fan was that of a child under the age of 12.

Federal law requires Ruiz to receive a prison term of at least five years. The maximum penalty is 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

“The significance [of that law] is the message that we want the public to get: It is a crime to distribute sexually explicit images of children,” Dugas said.