Child porn suspects pleaded not guilty to indictment
Two men accused of sexually molesting and using young boys for child pornography pleaded not guilty before Riverside County Superior Court Judge Richard Fields on Wednesday morning.
John David Yoder, 43, of Desert Hot Springs and Erick Alan Monsivais, 29, of Los Angeles, are each named — along with William Clyde Thompson of Las Vegas and Noland Anthony Harper of Richmond, Virginia — in a 59-count indictment alleging lewd acts on a child, human trafficking, sexual assault, conspiracy and other charges.
There are at least 10 alleged known underage victims, though investigators suspect there may be more.
Yoder and Monsivais were the only two slated to appear for the post- indictment arraignment. Harper and Thompson are in federal custody.
Both suspects pleaded not guilty to the indictment, and bail was set at $1M for Monsivais. The grand jury bail report found that Yoder’s appropriate bail would have been $500,000, but the judge raised the bail to $750,000 because of the alleged violation of trust, because he worked directly with the children, and because the charges against him are “extraordinarily egregious”.
Both suspects are due back in court on May 1st and a trial readiness conference is scheduled for May 28. The last day to start the trial has been set for June 22, but court officials said that date could change.
News Channel 3 and CBS Local 2 were in the courtroom Wednesday morning.
Prosecuting attorney’s refused to comment on camera. Yoder’s lawyer told us off camera that his client denies the allegations of the indictment and they’re eagerly awaiting when both sides of the story can be heard in court. Monsavais’ attorney echoed the same sentiment.
The District Attorney’s Office filed multiple charges against the men in February. However, after a preliminary hearing for Yoder was well underway, consuming hours of testimony, prosecutors opted to take the case before a grand jury, culminating in the indictment.
Yoder is being held at the Robert Presley Jail in Riverside, and Monsivais is in custody at the Southwest Detention Center in Murrieta.
According to an arrest declaration filed by the D.A.’s office, Yoder was allegedly witnessed molesting the youngest of his two foster children. Court papers allege the 12-year-old boy shared a bed with the defendant and was compelled to engage in sexually exploitative activity. In one instance, Yoder was allegedly seen fondling the youth’s privates as the two sat together in a
recliner, and on another occasion, Yoder ate potato chips off the child’s crotch, according to the declaration.
Until his arrest, Yoder was a licensed foster care provider and a special education assistant instructor for the Palm Springs Unified School District.
Prosecutors allege the defendants were prolific child pornographers and abusers.
According to court papers, their kiddie porn ring was in existence for at least three years. Thompson was characterized as the alleged ringleader, making trips to the Coachella Valley from his Las Vegas home and allegedly connecting with Monsivais and Yoder to find prospects.
In a video played during Yoder’s preliminary hearing, an 11-year-old boy alleged he had posed shirtless and barefoot during modeling sessions arranged by the defendants in exchange for cash, cellphones and high-end scooters.
The defendants would gather at Yoder’s home and spend time at a local skate park, where they solicited children to pose for photographs and videos, according to investigators.
Background: Preliminary Hearing
Despite the Indio judge having no jurisdiction over the case, he asked that all parties involved respect his gag order to preserve constitutionality and due process.
After a lengthy day of disturbing testimony Tuesday, the preliminary hearing for the Desert Hot Springs man accused of being part of a sprawling molestation and child pornography case was scheduled to resume Wednesday, for the special criminal grand jury to hear evidence in the case.
The preliminary hearing in the case against Yoder began
in February and a judge will decide if a trial is warranted. All parties in the Yoder proceedings are barred by a gag order from discussing the case outside of court and prosecutors declined to discuss any aspect of the case.
News Channel 3 and CBS Local 2 reporter Laura Yanez was in the courtroom detailing Tuesday’s testimony.Prosecutors played videotaped interviews with young boys, an 11-year-old and 12-year-old whoclaimed they met Yoder at a skateboard park in Desert Hot Springs.
The boys also admitted to knowing three other child porn ring suspects, William Thompson, Erick Monsivais and Noland Harper.
The boys said they modeled for the men and claimed Monzivais, Thompson and Harper would molest them. In return, the boys received clothes, shoes, scooters, iPhones, ice cream and money.
“He tried to touch me, but i stopped him,” said the 11-year-old boy about how Yoder allegedly attempted to take off the boy’s shirt.
Investigators said Tuesday they recovered 10,000 of Yoder’s emails, 500 of them appeared to implicate him in criminal activity. A dozenemails mentioned “vitamins” Yoder would allegedly give his 14-year-old adopted son to postpone puberty.
In a videotaped interview, Yoder’s adopted son denied being molested, but called all the suspects “perverts.”
Prosecutors also played a voicemail alegedly from Yoder who tells suspect Noland Harper he has “no complaints” about who’s in his bed apparently referring to a young boy.
32363152 32363176 32363220A grand jury has been convened in the case to hear evidence and possibly
issue indictments against Yoder and three other men charged in the case, according to a source with knowledge of the proceedings.
“All grand jury proceedings are secret and confidential and therefore I cannot confirm nor comment on any such proceedings,” said John Hall, a public information officer of the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office.
Yoder, Erick Monsivais of Los Angeles, William Clyde Thompson of Las Vegas, and Virginia accountant Noland Harper are accused of various roles in the ring, which allegedly lured boys from Coachella Valley parks with promises of modeling work.
The 19-member grand jury began hearing evidence in the case last week and was expected to continue working through this week at the grand jury room in the Riverside County government building at 3901 Lime St. in downtown Riverside, according to the source. By law, 12 members of the panel would have to vote to indict for charges to be brought forth.
It’s unclear how the grand jury proceedings would affect the criminal cases, which are already moving through the court system. Court papers indicate the alleged child porn ring targeted multiple children and was in existence for at least three years. Thompson was characterized as the ringleader, making trips to the Coachella Valley from his Las Vegas home and connecting with Monsivais and Yoder to find targets, authorities alleged.
Most of the defendants’ time was spent in Desert Hot Springs, cruising “parks and public places,” prosecutors said.
Yoder resided in Desert Hot Springs with his two adopted sons. Until recently, he was a licensed foster care provider and a special education assistant instructor for the Palm Springs Unified School District, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
Yoder faces 35 years to life behind bars if convicted of human trafficking of a minor, conspiracy, lewd acts on a child under 14 and aiding a felon to avoid arrest. He’s being held in lieu of $1 million bail at the Riverside County jail in Indio.
Monsivais is charged with four counts of oral copulation of a child under 10, three counts of aggravated assault on a minor with force, and one count each of human trafficking and lewd acts on a child with force.
Monsivais is being held in lieu of $1 million bail at the Southwest Detention Center in Murrieta and is slated to appear for a pre-trial hearing later this month. He’s facing 167 years to life in prison if convicted.
Thompson, who is in federal custody in Las Vegas, is charged with sodomy of a child, oral copulation of a minor, sexual assault of a child under 14, lewd acts on a child under 14, procurement of a child under 16 for lewd acts, human trafficking of a minor, use of a child for prohibited acts, distribution of child porn and conspiracy to create child pornography.
Thompson is facing 85 years to life in prison if convicted. A local arraignment date has not been set.
Along with the state charges, the defendants are all under federal indictment based on a federal grand jury inquiry completed in January that culminated in charges of sexual exploitation of a child, conspiracy to produce child porn and conspiracy to distribute child porn.
That case was the result of a 2013 investigation of Thompson, who allegedly used the aliases “Jason Brock” and “Tony Bailor” when introducing himself to children. He’s accused of posing as a professional photographer seeking boys to model for him, according to court documents.
Thompson was under house arrest in September 2013 when he allegedly tore off his GPS tracking bracelet and went on the lam. He was apprehended in Needles on Jan. 27.
According to Riverside County sheriff’s Investigator Andy Liu, Thompson attempted to contact Monsivais and Yoder after being taken into custody, leading authorities to interview and ultimately arrest those two defendants.
Harper, who was identified through court testimony in the Yoder case, has so far only been charged federally.
More details surfaced after investigator testifies at preliminary hearing
More details came to light after an investigator testified Tuesday, March 24 at the preliminary hearing of John David Yoder. One child told investigators during an interview that Yoder was “a master manipulator and great at making people believe in his lies.”
The licensed foster parent and Palm Springs Unified School District aid is accused with two accomplices of child molestation and producing child pornography with boys he helped lure away from Riverside County parks, sometimes by offering to help them become child models.
Most of the information learned in court dealt with the alleged interworkings of Yoder’s accomplices William Clyde Thompson and Erik Monsivais; how they met, delivered payment and began operating the child porn ring.
Investigator Remmers testified that Yoder’s two accomplices, 24-year-old Erick Monsivais of Los Angeles, and William Clyde Thompson, 54, of Las Vegas, met each other through a child porn website. Thompson allegedly drove to LA to meet Monsivais to tell him about the nude modeling scheme in Desert Hot Springs.
Monsavais said he was “really excited” to be a part of it and began providing iPhones to seduce victims in exchange for a 10-year-old boy for sex, according to Remmers’ testimony.
We also learned of a connection to a fourth possible suspect. Noland Harper was arrested at his home in Henrico, VA. He is accused of collecting child pornography. Investigators say he is a known associate of William Thompson, another man involved in this alleged child porn ring.
Investigator Remmers also said Monsavais admitted that he orally copulated the boy at least six times.
As the testimony went on, more alleged victims were mentioned from interviews conducted over the course of the investigation. One child told investigators that he never went to police to tell them about the abuse because he was worried they wouldn’t believe him and said that “everyone at the Desert Hot Springs Police Department is lazy.”
John Yoder’s allegations
Yoder is facing charges of human trafficking of a minor, aggravated sexual assault of a child by force, conspiracy, lewd acts on a child under 14 and aiding a felon to avoid arrest. He’s looking at 35 years to life in prison if convicted of the charges.
The preliminary hearing concluded Tuesday afternoon and is scheduled to resume on April 14, 15 and 16.
Mother of alleged victim testified Monday
The mother of an alleged victim took the stand at the preliminary hearing on Monday.
The Desert Hot Springs woman testified that her 12-year-old, developmentally disabled son met Yoder at the Center for Learning and Development where the defendant worked until 2012. She said they became friends, and due to domestic violence issues with her husband, she signed over guardianship to Yoder, which remained in place from October of 2013 to January of 2015.
She said she was in touch with her son, but every once in awhile Yoder would cut off contact. She said investigators looking into the case contacted her husband and told him he needed to get the boy out of the house.
The specifics are still unclear at this time, but the woman said she somehow managed to get inside Yoder’s home to collect her son’s belongings after hearing from the boy’s father. She said she found all of her son’s personal items in the closet of the master bedroom, where Yoder slept.
She told the courtroom she found a pair of her sons pants with a sex toy wrapped inside them on the top shelf of the closet. She took the sex toy with her and called investigators, but apparently they couldn’t do anything with the evidence since she removed it from the house.
The defense cross examined the woman and an attorney listed dozens of psychological counselors her son had been interviewed by, and stated that never once did the boy mention abuse.
The boy’s mother said the child had been abused six years prior to meeting the defendant, which she explained to Yoder while signing over guardianship.
The court adjourned for lunch and the preliminary hearing is expected to continue Monday afternoon.
During the suspect’s first court appearance, a teen who lived at his home with his adopted sons testified that he saw Yoder fondle a developmentally disabled boy who slept in a locked bedroom with the defendant.
Foster parents speak out about man accused in porn ring
The testimony was the first account of evidence compiled by the prosecution in effort to prove to a judge that their is enough probably cause for Yoder to stand Trial. The preliminary hearing was only expected to last a few hours, but the witness was on the stand for nearly the entire day and scheduling conflicts forced the continuation.
Young boy says “Jason Brock” asked him to model
Judge Jeffrey L. Gunther ordered that juvenile alleged victims and witnesses named in the hearing not be identified publicly.
How to spot a fake modeling agency
One such witness was a teenager who befriended one of Yoder’s foster children and moved into Yoder’s household when he was having problems at home. He said another boy about 11 or younger would come to visit about every other day before ultimately moving in, as well, sometime in 2013.
The defendant “seemed more close to (the boy) than anyone else,” the witness testified. Yoder told the other boys in the house that the child was “slow,” “not all there” and “didn’t test well,” and that they should “be nice,” the witness said.
The boy kept his clothes in the master bedroom and slept there with Yoder, according to the witness, who said the door to the room had a deadbolt. Yoder would often kiss or caress the boy in a romantic way, and encouraged him when he would run around the house naked, a practice the boy called “Batman mode,” the witness said.
“You said David treated (the boy) like a partner. What do you mean by that?” Deputy District Attorney William Robinson asked the teen. “Boyfriend,” the witness responded.
On one occasion, the teenager said he went to the kitchen for something to drink and saw Yoder and the boy on the living room recliners in their underwear. Yoder’s underwear was pulled down to his thighs and the witness said he watched the boy put his head in the man’s groin area to retrieve a Pringle’s potato chip that had been placed there.
“I saw his face in the crotch area,” the witness said. “I heard the crunch of the chip.”
On another occasion, the witness said he was leaving one night when he saw the two sitting in the same recliners and that Yoder had his hand in the boy’s underwear in what appeared to be a sex act.
The preliminary hearing was initially estimated to last about four hours, but as of midday, appeared on track to take all day.
Yoder’s attorney, John P. Dolan, was expected at some point during the hearing to ask the judge to lower his client’s $1 million bail. The high bail is based on the severity of the most serious charge — aggravated sexual assault of a child by force — against Yoder, who faces 35 years to life behind bars if convicted.
DHS man denies wrongdoing in child porn case
“Mr. Yoder adamantly denies any wrongdoing with young men,” Dolan said. “He has a stable family history, a stable work history. He has no criminal record.”
The prosecutor planned to call a total of four witnesses, and Dolan said he would decide after that whether to put any witnesses on the stand.
Yoder, who’s being held at the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside, appeared in court in a red jail jumpsuit, indicating he was being segregated from other prisoners.
Co-defendant Erick Monsivais, 24 of Los Angeles, is scheduled to appear in court again next month. A third alleged accomplice, William Clyde Thompson, 54, of Las Vegas, remains in federal custody in Nevada.
Court papers allege the three operated a child porn ring that targeted multiple children and was in existence for at least three years. District Attorney Mike Hestrin, joined by U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesman Robert Goetsh and several other local and federal officials,
provided limited information about the case during a news briefing at the D.A.’s headquarters in downtown Riverside last week.
“I’ve seen cases similar to this, but this one is rather egregious,” Goetsh said then. “This one rises to the top.”
Thompson was characterized as the alleged ringleader, making trips to the Coachella Valley from his Las Vegas home and hooking up with Monsivais and Yoder to find targets. Most of the defendants’ time was spent in Desert Hot Springs, cruising “parks and public places,” Hestrin alleged.
Yoder resided in Desert Hot Springs with his two adopted sons.
Adopted son of child porn suspect speaks out about father’s arrest
Until recently, Yoder was a licensed foster care provider and a special education assistant instructor for Palm Springs Unified, according to the D.A.’s office.
Activists want to see changes to foster care system in wake of child porn case
Officials with PSUSD said Yoder Yoder worked at the Center for Learning and Development until 2012, and then at Palm Springs High School and Painted Hills Middle School during the 2013-2014 school year. He was assigned to Desert Hot Springs High School beginning in July 2014. Yoder also served as a substitute aide at Desert Springs Middle School (one day only) and at Julius Corsini Elementary School for assigned single days during the school year.
According to John Torre, of the Fairfax County School District, John Yoder previously worked with the district in Virginia from 2005-2007. According to Torre, Yoder was a substitute teacher and special ed instructional assistant during that time.
PSUSD Assistant Superintendent Mauricio Arellano said Yoder has been suspended without pay pending the outcome of the criminal case. County Department of Public Social Services Director Susan von Zabern would not comment on the length of time Yoder spent as a foster parent or on
the process of vetting him.
PSUSD sends letter home to notify parents of Yoder’s arrest
Along with state charges, the defendants are all under federal indictment based on a grand jury inquiry completed last month that culminated in charges of sexual exploitation of a child, conspiracy to produce child porn and conspiracy to distribute child porn.
That case was the result of a 2013 investigation of Thompson, who allegedly used the aliases “Jason Brock” and “Tony Bailor” when introducing himself to children. He’s accused of posing as a professional photographer seeking boys to model for him, according to court documents.
Thompson was under house arrest in September 2013 when he allegedly tore off his GPS tracking bracelet and went on the lam. He was apprehended in Needles on Jan. 27.
According to Riverside County sheriff’s Investigator Andy Liu, Thompson attempted to contact Monsivais and Yoder after being taken into custody, leading authorities to interview and ultimately arrest those two defendants.
Authorities alleged in court documents that Yoder earned money from the sale of child pornography, and asked for scrutiny of any money he might use to make bail.
