Former MP sentenced to 40 years in prison for serial sex offender

A former Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy was sentenced to 40 years in prison on Friday for sexually abusing four young girls.

Sean Essex, 53, who served as a deputy for more than 22 years until his arrest in 2022, was pleaded guilty by Judge George G. Lomeli immediately after pleading guilty to repeatedly sexually abusing the girls, aged between 4 and 13.

The veteran deputy was taken into custody and charged in 2022 after investigators documented repeated sexual abuse of the three young daughters of a woman Essex was dating. Essex was also accused of abusing another girl in 2006. Prosecutors had learned of that allegation in 2006 but did not file charges against him at the time.

“The horrific sexual abuse Mr. Essex committed against these young victims not only violated his oath as a law enforcement officer to protect and serve the community, but also left these children with lifelong trauma,” District Attorney George Gascón said at the sentencing. “Children have an inviolable right to safety and protection. The victims have shown tremendous courage by coming forward and speaking out about their abuse at the hands of Mr. Essex.”

Essex 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. He also admitted to taking advantage of a position of trust in committing the crime and that a victim was particularly vulnerable, prosecutors said.

When he was arrested by his own department’s Internal Affairs and Special Victims Unit in April 2022, Essex was assigned to the sheriff’s training office. Essex was released on bail but was rearrested in August 2022 and has been behind bars since then, jail records show.

The original indictment from 2022 contained 33 counts and also included allegations of sexual abuse of the sisters and the girl he abused in 2006. However, prosecutors declined to pursue those charges at the time.

According to Spencer Lucas, an attorney for the sisters and their family, Essex had a romantic relationship with the mother of his victims at one point. According to the indictment, he was living with the girls when he sexually abused two of them.

One of the sisters was younger than 10 at the time, prosecutors said, and the other two were younger than 14. Essex maintained relationships with the girls and remained close to them even after separating from their mother, Lucas said.

“He picked the girls up one by one in his Los Angeles County Sheriff’s cruiser, took them away and abused them in the cruiser,” Lucas told the Times after the arraignment. Lucas said some of the abuse took place in a sheriff’s parking lot.

On Friday, Lomeli ordered Essex to pay the victims compensation in an amount to be determined by the court.