A former Anaheim church ministry volunteer was sentenced to greater than 120 years in jail for molesting ladies as younger as six years outdated, in line with authorities.
Newport Seaside resident Todd Christian Hartman, 41, was convicted earlier this month on two felony counts of oral copulation or sexual penetration of a kid 10 years or youthful, 4 felony counts of lewd or lascivious acts with a minor underneath the age of 14 and one felony depend of possession of kid pornography, in line with an Orange County district lawyer’s workplace information launch.
“Homes of worship ought to be protected havens from the evils of the world, however as a substitute baby predators remodel them from a spot of security right into a searching floor for unsuspecting victims for his or her twisted sexual gratification,” Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer stated within the launch.
On Wednesday, Hartman was sentenced to 120 years to life plus one other 4 years and 4 months in jail, in line with the district lawyer’s workplace. Underneath the state’s elder parole regulation, although, he’ll turn out to be eligible for parole after he serves 20 years of his sentence, Spitzer stated.
“When he does come up for parole,” Spitzer stated within the launch, “we are going to do all the things in our energy as prosecutors to maintain him behind bars the place he undoubtedly belongs.”
In 2016, officers stated, Hartman contacted the daddy of two of his alleged victims and admitted that he molested certainly one of them, whom he had met whereas he was volunteering within the Anaheim Winery Church kids’s ministry and she or he was 6 years outdated. Church leaders modified his duties as a result of they have been involved about him repeatedly placing kids in his lap, the district lawyer’s workplace stated.
Hartman was additionally convicted of molesting the lady’s youthful sister whereas taking sexually suggestive images of her on his lap, officers stated, and of molesting a 12-year-old and a 14-year-old lady throughout a 2009 sleepover on the household residence of one of many ladies.
The Newport Seaside Police Division served a search warrant in February 2015 on Hartman’s Newport Seaside residence after connecting it to an IP tackle that had shared baby pornography photographs, the district lawyer’s workplace stated.
