Ex-Navy detective convicted of choking sailor is sentenced in child sex-exploitation case

A San Diego federal judge on Tuesday sentenced a former Navy detective and El Cajon police officer to 20 years in prison in a child sex-exploitation case, telling Jonathan Christopher LaRoche that he would have sentenced him to a longer term if the law did not cap his punishment at two decades.

“Your actions here were reprehensible,” U.S. District Judge James Simmons told LaRoche, also a Marine Corps veteran. “Frankly, 20 years is not enough time.”

LaRoche, 42, pleaded guilty last year to a charge of conspiracy to distribute child sex abuse material. In his plea agreement, he admitted that he had created child sex abuse images with a pre-pubescent victim, shared those images online and was having online conversations about creating more explicit images with his victim. He also admitted to possessing other child sex abuse images.

At the time of his arrest last year in the sex-abuse case, LaRoche was just w...