A former South Lake Tahoe snowboarding instructor was sentenced Nov. 13 to five years in prison and an additional five years of supervised release for distributing child pornography, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Timothy Mackey, 42, was a member of various chat groups—including a group named “No Limit!!!”—that shared child pornography, according to court documents.
According to prosecutors, he was also the administrator of at least one such group chat on the social media platform LiveMe, giving him the authority to moderate the chat and manage group members.
Mr. Mackey posted nine images of child pornography in the “No Limit!!!” group on two occasions in 2020 under the username “bag of rock,” prosecutors said. A search of the IP address linked to “bag of rock” led investigators to Mr. Mackey’s residence in South Lake Tahoe.
Prior to his arrest in 2020, Mr. Mackey was approved to be a foster parent with his wife, according to prosecutors. He also worked as a junior varsity boys soccer coach at South Lake Tahoe High School, the Sacramento Bee reported.
“The fact that he surrounded himself with children (and attempted to surround himself with even more children) while he knew of this proclivity is concerning,” the prosecutors’ sentencing memorandum stated in the publication’s story.
He pleaded guilty to distributing child pornography in June.
His case is part of a nationwide initiative started by the Department of Justice in 2006 to address the escalating epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.
Federal prosecutors said that Mr. Mackey appears to have a history of exchanging child explicit content dating back to at least 2008, and an FBI database indicated that an IP address associated with him was allegedly involved in offering child pornography during that year, as reported by the Sacramento Bee.
However, that investigation was closed in 2009, the publication said, “with no information regarding why Mackey was not contacted or charged at that time,” prosecutors wrote in their sentencing memorandum.
