A California resident has been sentenced to 24 years and four months in prison for operating websites on the dark web that shared images of child sexual abuse. Court documents reveal that Louis Donald Mendonsa, 62, from Sacramento, managed four websites from December 2021 until his arrest in November 2022. These sites were used for advertising, distributing, and exchanging abusive images and videos of children.
Mendonsa was found guilty of distributing child pornography over these platforms while using a local coffee shop's internet. A search of his electronic devices revealed approximately 6,500 images depicting identified victims. He pleaded guilty in April 2024 to seven counts of distribution and one count of possession of child pornography.
The announcement was made by Supervisory Official Antoinette T. Bacon of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Acting U.S. Attorney Michele Beckwith for the Eastern District of California, and Special Agent in Charge Tatum King of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) San Francisco.
The investigation was conducted by HSI San Francisco with support from the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office, the Sacramento Police Department, and the High Technology Investigative Unit of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS). CEOS Trial Attorney Kaylynn Foulon along with Assistant U.S. Attorneys Emily Sauvageau and Christina McCall prosecuted the case.
This case is part of Project Safe Childhood, an initiative launched by the Department of Justice in May 2006 to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse. The project aims to locate and prosecute individuals exploiting children online while identifying and rescuing victims.