12 Arrested in Sacramento County Child Pornography Sting

A man in handcuffs in a file photo. Philippe Huguen/AFP/Getty Images

A two-week online child pornography investigation in the Sacramento Valley region of California has resulted in the arrests of 12 men, the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office announced Oct. 31.

The Sacramento Valley Hi-Tech Crimes Task Force, made up of 18 local agencies including the sheriff’s office, conducted the high-tech investigation called “Operation Monster Mash.”

Sheriff Jim Cooper, a former state assemblyman, had harsh words for those allegedly involved in the type of online viewing and trading of child pornography targeted in the task force’s third operation this year.

“These individuals are the scum of the earth,” Mr. Cooper said during a press conference Tuesday. “I wish I could show you all in the public how bad it is. These folks are evil.”

The child victims involved in the materials collected during the latest sting were as young as newborns and toddlers, according to the sheriff.

One of the men arrested allegedly had an online chat with one of the child victim’s parents, asking for their permission to molest the child, he added.

Sacramento Valley Hi-Tech Crimes Task Force detectives arrested 12 suspects in the Sacramento Valley region of California who were arrested on charges related to having downloaded sexual abuse materials involving children, and other charges, the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office announced Oct. 31, 2023. Courtesy of the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office

“Many of the targeted suspects were found to be in possession of horrendous [child pornography] files that depicted sexual images of infants and toddlers who were forced to engage in sexual abuse,” the sheriff’s office said in a social media post Tuesday.

Tens of thousands of images and videos were recovered during the operation, according to the sheriff’s office. One suspect had over 5 terabytes, equal to 5,000 gigabytes of images, the department said. Detectives also recovered videos and images of unknown suspects urinating on infants and toddlers, the sheriff’s department reported.

One suspect, Josh Sevilla, 40, of Citrus Heights, California, is also suspected of “hands-on” offenses with a minor who was between 11 and 12 years old for two years, according to the sheriff’s department.

Mr. Sevilla was charged with 12 counts of lewd acts with a minor by force or fear, eight counts of lewd acts with a minor under 14, and possession of child pornography. The defendant remained in custody Tuesday on a $1 million bond, according to the sheriff’s office.

Future Investigations in Jeopardy

Tips that led to many of the arrests in the investigation might be harder to obtain in the future following a recent decision by Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta—parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp—to encrypt, or conceal, its data by the end of the year.

Meta provides law enforcement about 27 million tips of child pornography crimes each year, according to Sheriff Cooper.

A security guard stands watch by the Meta sign outside the headquarters of Facebook parent company Meta Platforms Inc in Mountain View, Calif., on Nov. 9, 2022. Peter DaSilva/Reuters

But, encryption will prevent law enforcement from easily investigating crimes, he said.

“We’re going to lose a majority of those tips,” Mr. Cooper said.

Child pornography has become rampant on Meta platforms and other internet sites, and the problem especially exploded during the COVID-19 pandemic, the sheriff added.

“Facebook and Meta, they want to skirt their responsibility,” Mr. Cooper said. “They’re going to full encryption. So then, how do we capture these bad people? Ask yourself, who is Meta concerned about? It’s profits over our children.”

The tech industry holds a lot of influence and power in the state Legislature, Mr. Cooper added. He said he is already planning to work with state lawmakers to develop legislation to introduce next year addressing harsher penalties and other ways to combat the growing problem, he said.

Child pornography has grown so vast in Sacramento County, the district attorney had to add another prosecutor for the unit. The office now has two full-time prosecutors working about 85 cases, according to the district attorney’s office.

Others arrested during “Operation Monster Mash” were:

• Santos Abraham Sanchez, 53, of Sacramento
• Gary Paul Gauthier, 63, of Sacramento
• Christopher Kent Bowman, 38, of Cirtrus Heights
• Joseph John Deangelis, 53, of Elk Grove
• Michael Bradford Stealey, 45, of Folsom
• Joshua Alan Akins, 35, of Lodi
• Thomas Rider Plowright, 55, city unknown
• Marc Kevin Floresca, 32, of Cameron Park
• Matthew Todd Berg, 35, of Roseville
• Robert Owen Gunwall, 50, of Roseville
• James Stanley Skaggs, 60, of Isleton

Further charges are pending against some defendants, according to the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office.

Defendants face multiple felony child pornography counts, including possession, distribution, and production of pornography; lewd act with a minor under the age of 14; lewd acts with a minor by force or fear; and firearms charges including being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition.

Maximum sentences for each defendant have not yet been determined, according to the district attorney’s office.