BAKER CITY — A former correctional officer at the Powder River Correctional Facility, Baker City, who has spent nearly a year behind bars at the Baker County Jail, will spend the next 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to child pornography charges Tuesday, March 9, in Baker County Circuit Court.

Judge Matt Shirtcliff sided with District Attorney Greg Baxter in taking the harsher end of a plea agreement that ranged from five years to 15 years in prison in sentencing David Leon Cernazanu.

As part of the agreement, Cernazanu, 49, pleaded guilty to three counts of second-degree encouraging child sexual abuse, a Class C felony.

Cernazanu will receive credit for the time he served in jail and the ability to earn good time toward earlier release while in prison.

The state dismissed 62 other counts against Cernazanu, including charges of first-degree encouraging child sexual abuse, first-degree invasion of personal privacy and using a child in sexually explicit conduct.

Shirtcliff also ordered Cernazanu to complete three years of post-prison supervision upon release, including sex offender treatment. He also must register as a sex offender.

Baxter and Robert Moon, a Baker City attorney the court appointed to represent Cernazanu, each called witnesses to bolster their case. Baxter argued for the 15-year sentence, and Moon called for a shorter prison term.

An audience of about 30 people, including law enforcement and mental health professionals and victims and their family members, were in the courtroom during the two-hour hearing.

Cernazanu was arrested April 24, 2020, at his Baker City home after an investigation by the state Department of Justice and the Oregon State Police. OSP executed a search of Cernazanu’s home on Feb. 19, 2020, and seized evidence, including computers and phones, which the Oregon Department of Justice analyzed. What they found was “an astronomical amount of child pornography,” Baxter said during Tuesday’s proceedings.

Baxter asked the judge to take into consideration that among the victims were eight local children, four of whom were in the courtroom. Baxter said parents had trusted Cernazanu, who had worked in a position of authority as a correctional officer at Powder River since 2017 and had served as a reserve officer for the Baker City Police Department for a short time. The girls came to his home as friends of his daughter, who also was victimized, the district attorney said.

The victims have suffered depression, suicidal thoughts, anorexia and negative feelings of self-worth as a result of Cernazanu’s crimes, Baxter said.

“He deserves to be punished,” he said. “These girls deserve justice and Mr. Cernazanu needs to be held accountable for his actions.”

Cernazanu’s daughter spoke to her father during Tuesday’s hearing.

“I forgive you and still love you so much,” she said.

But in his treatment toward her and her friends, she reminded him of what he had always told her while she was growing up: “Actions speak louder than words.”

Cernazanu offered his own apology to his victims and their family members.

“I did not mean to hurt anyone,” he said.

He pleaded with the judge for the more lenient sentence.

In announcing his decision, Shirtcliff sympathized with the hardships Cernazanu has suffered in his life, noting the mitigating factors of Cernazanu’s own abuse as a child and trauma he experienced in the military. But the judge said he had to look toward community safety in sentencing the defendant to the harsher prison term.

“The harm or loss is great,” he said, pointing to the trauma the girls have suffered and Cernazanu’s violation of the trust parents put in him when they allowed their daughters to visit his home. “That will not be tolerated in this community.”