The Department of Justice (DOJ) is weighing potential federal charges against a self-described Satanist pedophile whom California punished leniently, First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli exclusively told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
A court in San Luis Obispo County sentenced former substitute schoolteacher Gregory Kornman in October to eight years in prison for possessing and distributing thousands of child pornography files, but California law allows him to serve only half the sentence, according to San Luis Obispo District Attorney Dan Dow’s office. Essayli, a President Donald Trump appointee, said he is willing to intervene in the situation when the DCNF reached out for comment.
“Four years in prison for this horrific and disturbing conduct is inexcusable, and is yet another documented failure of the State of California to keep the public safe,” Essayli told the DCNF. “I have instructed my office to review this case and determine if there are any federal charges we can bring to ensure this individual remains in custody.”
Police caught Kornman masturbating in his car in March while employed by the Bonita Unified School District in San Dimas, sparking an investigation that uncovered more sinister intentions, local media outlets reported. Law enforcement found more than 3,000 videos and images of child pornography on his devices, including infant abuse, as well as messages in which he indicated plans to buy a windowless van so he could kidnap and abuse children.
Kornman considered himself part of an online “Satanic pedo brotherhood” and expressed sadistic fantasies in conversations with other pedophiles, declaring that the sound of children crying and screaming is “music to my ears,” court documents showed, according to the San Luis Obispo Tribune. Police reportedly found sex toys in his house and a human-sized cage that could not be unlocked from the inside.
“I thank Father Satan every single fucking day for designing me to be a sadistic no-limits pedo!” Kornman wrote in one message, the paper reported. Kornman reportedly had multiple hard drugs in his system when arrested.
Kornman formerly worked with kindergarten and middle school students at Bonita Unified School District in Santa Maria, the district attorney’s office said.
California allows some criminals to receive double the credit for time served behind bars, cutting their sentences in half. Former Democratic California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a Democrat-backed law in 2011 that expanded the credits program to include registered sex offenders like Kornman, as well as people convicted of prior serious and violent felonies.
Kornman was already on probation, mandatory supervision, post-release community supervision and parole when his child pornography crimes were committed, prosecutors said in court documents. The district attorney’s office asked the court for an eight-year sentence, five years below the maximum allowed, because Kornman accepted responsibility for the crime while pleading guilty, The Mercury News reported. Dow, a Republican, called the subsequent sentencing “disappointing,” the paper reported.
“While this will remove him from our community for only four years, it should protect our children from his stated intent for that time, after which he will be released on parole,” Dow said in an October statement. “Our office is firmly committed to aggressively prosecuting those who exploit children and to protecting the most vulnerable members of our society.”
Dow did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
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