David Perez, Palm Beach County chef pleads guilty to distributing child porn

A Palm Beach County cook pleaded guilty on Friday to a federal charge of distributing child pornography, court records show.

Investigators said David Perez, 50, exchanged several pornographic images of children with an undercover agent during an online chat earlier this year.

Perez, who was originally from Lake Worth, owned a restaurant in the Athens, Ga. area, and was setting up another restaurant in Lake Worth, according to court records. He was arrested in June at a Delray Beach address where he was staying with a friend.

Agents said they found about 100 pornographic pictures of children in Perez's laptop and that he admitted to downloading them, according to court records.

The maximum punishment for the crime is between five and 20 years in federal prison. Perez is scheduled for sentencing Nov. 9 in federal court in West Palm Beach.

Copyright 2012 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.