Louis Donald Mendonsa, Distributing Child Pornography, California 2022

Sacramento residents are reeling after the shocking arrest of Louis Donald Mendonsa, 61, who pleaded guilty to distributing child pornography on the dark web.

According to sources, Mendonsa was a global moderator on at least four Tor websites dedicated to the sexual exploitation of children and the dissemination of child pornography. He created new topics and forums, managed and commented on other users’ posts, shared and enforced the rules, and distributed child pornography by uploading images and videos within the websites.

When law enforcement officers arrested Mendonsa in Sacramento on November 29, 2022, they found him in possession of an external hard drive containing over 11,000 images and videos of child pornography.

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

Mendonsa is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Troy L. Nunley on July 18, 2024. Mendonsa faces a minimum statutory penalty of 15 years in prison and a maximum of 40 years in prison each for count of distributing child pornography, and between 10 and 20 years in prison for possession of child pornography.

The actual sentence will be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines. This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.

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