Anaheim youth minister sentenced to life in prison for molesting four girls

By Dean Fioresi

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    ORANGE COUNTY, California (KCAL/KCBS) — A former Orange County youth minister has been sentenced to more than 120 years to life in prison for molesting four girls and possession of child pornography.

Todd Christian Hartman, 41 of Newport Beach, was originally convicted early in July on eight felony counts related to sexually assaulting four girls and one felony count for possession of child pornography.

He was sentenced on Wednesday to 120 years to life, plus another four years and four months, in prison.

The case started back in Oct. 2014, when investigators were made aware of child pornography on devices at his home, court records show. At the time, Hartman lived with his mother.

Prosecutors say that a computer in his room had more than 1,500 suspected child pornography and child erotica images, on top of about 400 videos. Another hard drive contained about 5,000 images and a thumb drive had nearly 80 deleted video files with names associated with illicit child-related material, prosecutors said.

He was indicted by federal prosecutors who later dismissed the case against him after a detective failed to read Hartman his Miranda rights, a statement from the Orange County Superior Court said.

He was previously accused of molesting a 14-year-old girl and her 12-year-old friend on Dec. 29 and Dec. 30 in 2009 when they were at the home of one of the alleged victims’ great-grandmothers in Fullerton.

At that time, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office declined to file a case. The charges in the current trial included those same accusers from 2009.

When the federal case against Hartman was dropped and he was released from custody in 2016, he told the father of two sisters that he had met through a youth ministry at Vineyard Church in Anaheim that he was planning on visiting them after the charges were dismissed. This caused one of the two girls to have a “meltdown” and tell her parents that she was molested, prosecutors said during the trial.

During that email, Hartman admitted that he had molested one of his two daughters repeatedly, starting when she was just 6-years-old. Church leaders at the time even changed his responsibilities after becoming increasingly concerned about his pulling his children onto his lap.

“He was the guy who was part of the family,” Deputy District Attorney Scott Wooldridge said in his closing argument. “They invited him into their home routinely.”

Hartman was also convicted of molesting the girl’s younger sister while taking sexually suggestive photographs while the girl was on his lap. He was also convicted of molesting a 14-year-old and a 12-year-old girl whom he groped and fondled their genitals repeatedly while they were at a 2009 sleepover at the Fullerton home of relatives of one of the girls.

“Houses of worship should be safe havens from the evils of the world, but instead child predators transform them from a place of safety into a hunting ground for unsuspecting victims for their twisted sexual gratification,” said Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer. “No child should have the innocence of childhood robbed from them by anyone, much less someone they were led to believe they could trust. While these victims and their families grapple with trying to put back together their shattered innocence, they must also deal with the fact that instead of having the peace of mind that this predator who preyed on the most innocent of children will never be out of prison, they must deal with the harsh reality that he will eligible for parole in just a few years as a result of the governor and the state Legislature’s reckless and disgraceful decisions to once again put the criminals before the victimized by allowing dangerous predators to be eligible for elder parole at age 50 after serving just 20 years. We will never leave the sides of our victims and when he does come up for parole we will do everything in our power as prosecutors to keep him behind bars where he undoubtedly belongs.”

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