Sacramento Men Indicted on Federal Child Porn Charges

March 1, 2018 |  

The U.S.Attorney's office in Sacramento announced today that a federal grand jury issued indictments against two defendants on separate child pornography charges.

The defendants, both of Sacramento are David Patrick Seilheimer, 50, for receiving child pornography and possessing child pornography, and  Mark A. Richards, 48,  who is charged with advertising and distributing child pornography.

Between May 2015 and February 7, 2018, Seilheimer allegedly using the internet, downloaded and shared child pornography videos and images. The images included prepubescent children engaged in sexual activity. 

In January 2018, Richards, who has been in custody since February 14,  allegedly made child pornography available over a peer-to-peer file sharing network and provided passwords to undercover officers who asked him for access to his files. On two occasions, January 7, 2018 and January 11, 2018, those undercover officers in locations outside California obtained child pornography from the defendant.

The investigation into Seilheimer was a cooperative effort by the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, a federally and state-funded task force managed by the Sacramento Sheriff’s Department with agents from federal, state, and local agencies. Richards' case This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative by the Department of Justice. 

If convicted, Seilheimer faces a maximum statutory penalty of 40 years in prison and a $250,000 fine while Richards faces a maximum statutory penalty of 30 years in prison for advertising child pornography and 20 years in prison for each count of distributing child pornography, along with a $250,000 fine on each count. No future court dates have been disclosed.