December 11, 2022 - SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A federal grand jury returned an eight-count indictment Thursday against Louis Donald Mendonsa, 60, of Sacramento, charging him with distributing and possessing child pornography, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced.

According to court documents, Mendonsa was an administrator or moderator on four dark-web sites dedicated to child sexual abuse materials and the dissemination of child pornography. The websites operated on the Tor network, which is a computer network designed to facilitate anonymous communication over the internet. In addition to administering and moderating the websites, Mendonsa created new topic threads within the websites, distributed child pornography, and possessed videos and images which constitute child pornography.

This case is the product of an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Homeland Security Investigations, the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office, and the Sacramento Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily G. Sauvageau and U.S. Department of Justice Trial Attorney Kaylynn Foulon are prosecuting the case.

If convicted, Mendonsa faces a minimum statutory penalty of 15 years in prison and a maximum of 40 years in prison for each count of distributing child pornography, plus up to an additional 10 to 20 years in prison for possession of child pornography, in addition to potential fines. Any sentence, however, would be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables. The charges are only allegations; the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

Source: DOJ Release