Former Teacher Pleads Guilty In Child Porn Case

Former Irvin High School dance teacher Marco Antonio Alferez pleaded guilty in federal court to charges of sexual exploitation of children and the distribution of child pornography Tuesday afternoon.

The 35-year-old Alferez, who has been held in the El Paso County Jail without bond for nearly a year, entered the courtroom wearing a dark blue jumpsuit and orange shoes with both his hands and feet shackled.

Alferez admitted to the possession of child pornography and secretly taping dance students in a dressing room. The court dismissed five other charges in exchange for the guilty plea. According to investigators, the videotapes contained scenes of children from five different El Paso schools where Alferez taught, including two elementary schools, one middle school and two high schools.

At one point, U.S. prosecutor Brandy Gardes read details about the child-porn videos that Alferez had on his computer, causing Alferez to sigh heavily as he stood next to his attorney, Michael Gibson.

When Gardes stated that there were 393 victims, some members of Alferez’s family sat motionless in the front row. Alferez’ family, including his sister, chose not to comment afterward

“Prosecutors read some of the details of the videos today, some pretty harsh things we heard in this courtroom,” Gibson said. “Any child porn video is harsh, and these are commercially available — illegally to be sure — but they’re commercially available all over the place.”

Alferez faces a minimum of 15 years in prison and up to 30 years in prison without parole. He is expected to be sentenced by Judge Kathleen Cardone within the next 30 to 45 days following a pre-sentence investigation that will look into several things, including his health, education and family background, Gibson said. Until then, Alferez will remain in federal custody.

“He’s facing on the statutory punishment on the most serious of the two charges, is not less than 15 to more than 30 years in the penitentiary,” Gibson said. “The other one carries a potential five-year sentence, but those will be run — I’m assuming — concurrently rather than stacked or consecutively.”

According to investigators, Alferez’s computer had 98 commercially available child pornography videos and about 150 self-produced hidden-camera videos depicting children in a dressing area, some completely nude. In some of the videos, Alferez can be seen setting up the hidden camera and oftentimes heard off-camera giving instructions to his students that they were required to take all of their clothes off in order to try on clothing he supplied.

According to a statement of facts, two of the self-produced, hidden camera videos also depict Alferez engaging in sexual relations with girl.