Sacramento Man Convicted of Plot to Produce Child Porn With Filipino Co-Conspirator

September 6, 2017 |  

A Sacramento man was convicted yesterday in U.S. District Court in Sacramento of attempted travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct, and buying of children.

The defendant, Michael Carey Clemans, 57, also plead guilty on three additional charges of  conspiracy to produce child pornography, attempted production and production of child pornography, and receipt of child pornography. 

According to evidence produced at the trail, staring in June 2014, Clemans conspired with a woman in the Philippines to produce child pornography. During much of the conspiracy, Clemans was temporarily residing in Bangkok, Thailand, where he worked as an airline pilot. 

By April of 2015, Clemans returned to his Sacramento residence and continued his overseas conspiracy using his online account to chat with the Filipino woman. In these chats, Clemans discussed various strategies to obtain minor girls whom he could rape. 

Clemans instructed the Filipino woman on how to find vulnerable victims, directing her to look for orphans and victims of typhoons and paid her $6,000 for the purchase of photographic equipment and find discreet locations to conduct sexually explicit photo shoots of the victims, who were as young as seven. He also gave his co-conspirator explicit instructions on how to photograph their naked bodies so he could determine which ones he would come to the Philippines to rape and indicated in the chats with the Filipino woman that he was particularly interested in very young virgins. 

On multiple occasions, Clemans paid a co-conspirator to obtain temporary custody of the children in the Philippines and produce child pornography for him. Clemans also perpetrated another scheme with other individuals in November 2013, in which he traveled from the United States to Manila for the purpose of engaging in illicit sexual conduct with minors, including an 11-year-old girl, after requesting and receiving pornographic images of minors. 

Sentencing is scheduled on December 12, 2017, by U.S. District Judge John A. Mendez. Clemans faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 30 years in prison for the “buying children” charge, a maximum statutory penalty of life in prison, and a $250,000 fine.