BATON ROUGE — The city-parish's former chief building officer, who worked as a contract employee, was sentenced Monday to more than seven years in prison after being convicted on child pornography charges.

The U.S. Attorney's office said Blake Joseph Steiner, 37, will also serve five years of supervised release after his 86-month prison term.

An affidavit filed by prosecutors said Steiner used the messaging app "Kik" to try and join a private group for "taboo subjects." After an investigation, prosecutors accused him of distributing child pornography.

In a statement Monday, the government detailed that Steiner had sent a test video of himself in an effort to join the group, then later sent a video of a girl under 12 years old being raped by an adult male. At one point, prosecutors said, Steiner told an undercover agent that he managed another child pornography group online and that he engaged in hands-on conduct involving a minor.

At the time he was arrested, Steiner performed work for the East Baton Rouge housing office but was not employed directly by the city-parish. 

"Mr. Steiner was not a City-Parish employee but an employee of South Central Planning & Development Commission, a contractor for City-Parish," a statement from East Baton Rouge Parish said in May 2024. "Mr. Steiner is no longer performing duties for City-Parish and we will ensure that operations continue as normal without interruption."