By Elizabeth Piazza
The Farmington Daily Times
FARMINGTON, N.M. -- The San Juan County Detention Center worker convicted of downloading hundreds of images of child pornography will spend the next nine months in jail.
The images depicted babies, preteens and early adolescents in various sexual settings, including bondage.
Chief District Judge John Dean on Tuesday sentenced Donald McDonald, 47, to six years in jail and suspended all but nine months of the term.
McDonald, who has no criminal history, pleaded guilty Jan. 20 to 21 counts of sexual exploitation of a child and one count of tampering with evidence, all fourth-degree felonies which each carry a sentence of up to 18 months in prison.
“I think that’s the appropriate thing to do in this case, is punish him,” Dean said. “I also know he’s been to the Department of Corrections for 60 days, he’s been to jail, he’s lost his family, there’s been other punishment that’s probably stricter than what the court can impose.”
Tuesday’s sentencing followed a 60-day psychological evaluation Dean ordered after McDonald’s conviction.
The evaluation reported “no indication or diagnosis of any mental disorder or psychological disorder that shows high risk factors for reoffense,” Mark Curnutt, McDonald’s attorney, said in court. “It notes he did display behaviors of being depressed and anxious and acknowledging the shame he feels over this entire situation.”
Police filed charges against McDonald in August after his wife tipped off investigators to videos she discovered on McDonald’s computer: the first depicting two 12-year-old girls engaged in sexual acts and the second showing what appeared to be a brother and sister about 12 years old engaging in sexual acts, according to police records.
The couple now is divorced.
After a lengthy investigation searching through his computer files, police discovered McDonald had carefully organized the pornography into several folders by gender and type.
“The photos were especially heinous,” Senior Trial Prosecutor Robert Gentile said during the January hearing.
Gentile described the pictures as so atrocious that the investigating detective could not make his way through the hundreds that he believe existed.
Dean on Tuesday, however, said despite the numerous charges, “it appears in this case to be one real incident.”
“I don’t see that this is one where you would stack them up other than the purpose of trying to keep control for a longer period of time,” he said of the years of incarceration.
Curnutt asked the judge to consider probation with treatment for McDonald.
“While the possessions of these images and the acknowledgment to the possession of these images does constitute the crimes to which he acknowledged and pled guilty to, he of course did not make them, did not sell them and did not have any part in what would be considered the injury to any of the victims in this case,” Curnutt said Tuesday.
Dean authorized work release for McDonald, who has spent about 70 days in jail, including the 60 days for the psychological evaluation. He was released two weeks after his arrest and went to live and care for his elderly mother.
“What happens is because people hit those sites the people who put them up leave them up; that’s the problem and that behavior needs to stop,” Dean said, comparing the incident to drug abuse. “If there wasn’t any demand for meth, they would quit making it.”
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