Louis Donald Mendonsa, a 62-year-old resident of Sacramento, has been sentenced to 24 years and four months in prison for his involvement in operating four dark web websites that shared images of child sexual abuse. The announcement was made by Acting U.S. Attorney Michele Beckwith for the Eastern District of California, Supervisory Official Antoinette T. Bacon of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) San Francisco Special Agent in Charge Tatum King.
Court documents revealed that Mendonsa managed and maintained these websites from at least December 2021 until his arrest in November 2022. These sites were used to advertise, distribute, and exchange images and videos depicting child sexual abuse. One site allowed members to post content involving children as young as infants and toddlers. Mendonsa used internet access at a local coffee shop to advertise and distribute such material and assisted others in running the websites. His electronic devices contained approximately 6,500 images of child sexual abuse.
In April 2024, Mendonsa pleaded guilty to seven counts of distribution and one count of possession of child pornography.
The investigation was conducted by HSI with assistance 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). Assistant U.S. Attorneys Emily Sauvageau and Christina McCall for the Eastern District of California along with CEOS Trial Attorney Kaylynn Foulon 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. It involves federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, prosecute offenders exploiting children online, as well as identify and rescue victims.