5 Las Vegas men plead guilty to distributing child sexual abuse materials, federal prosecutors say

Five Las Vegas men pleaded guilty this month to distributing child sexual abuse material, federal prosecutors announced Friday.

The Department of Justice said in a news release that the five men pleaded guilty to varying charges, including counts of distributing, transporting and possessing child sexual abuse material. Each charge carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.

“The relentless pursuit of child sex predators is one of the FBI’s top priorities,” said Christopher S. Delzotto, special agent in charge for the FBI Las Vegas Field Office, in a news release. “Victimization and abuse of our most vulnerable, our community’s innocent children, is unacceptable.”

Prosecutors said James Donovan possessed more than 50,000 digital images and videos of child sexual abuse material and distributed material at least 11 times on the social media app Discord. Donovan pleaded guilty Friday to one count of distribution, one count of transportation and one count of possession of child sexual abuse material, the news release said.

Travis Ehlers admitted to possessing more than 15,000 images and videos of child sexual abuse material and making more than 500 images available for download on a peer-to-peer network, prosecutors said. Ehlers pleaded guilty Friday to one count of distribution and one count of possession of child sexual abuse material.

Randall William Rushton, prosecutors said, possessed more than 11,000 images and videos of child sexual abuse material and, on two separate occasions, made more than 600 total images and videos available for download on a peer-to-peer network. Rushton pleaded guilty Friday to two counts of distribution and one count of possession of child sexual abuse material.

Andrew Padilla made more than 4,000 child sexual abuse images and videos available for download on a peer-to-peer network and admitted to possessing about 160 images and videos of child sexual abuse material, the news release said. Padilla pleaded guilty June 1 to one count of distribution and one count of possession of child sexual abuse material.

Jimmy Franklin Dearman, prosecutors said, admitted to possessing more than 1,800 images and videos of child sexual abuse material and distributing at least 39 files of child sexual abuse material on a peer-to-peer network, where he made about 239 files available for download. Dearman pleaded guilty June 1 to one count of distribution and one count of possession of child sexual abuse material.

The cases are a part of Project Safe Childhood, “a nationwide initiative to combat the epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice,” the news release said.