West Covina Man Pleads Guilty to Possessing and Distributing Hundreds of Sexually Explicit Images and Videos of Children

LOS ANGELES – A San Gabriel Valley man pleaded guilty today to federal criminal charges for knowingly distributing, receiving, and possessing child sexual abuse material (CSAM) from his home and admitted to possessing hundreds of images and videos of sexually explicit material involving children, including infants and toddlers.

Herbert Redholtz, 74, of West Covina, pleaded guilty to five felonies: two counts of distribution of child pornography, two counts of receipt of child pornography, and one count of possession of child pornography. Redholtz remains free on $20,000 bond.

According to his plea agreement, from at least April 2014 to November 2014, Redholtz knowingly distributed, received, and possessed CSAM using his personal email account. Specifically, he possessed hundreds of videos and images of CSAM via this email account, which he accessed from his personal computer while at home.

Redholtz’s email account contained approximately 448 images and 109 videos depicting sexually explicit content involving children as well as 402 images and 25 videos depicting child erotica. This account also contained approximately 1,109 emails containing evidence of similar images sent to or from Redholtz’s email address.

Redholtz admitted in his plea agreement that he knew the production of such visual depictions involved minors, including victims under the age of 12 years old being used for sexual acts, including infants and toddlers.

United States District Judge Mark C. Scarsi scheduled an October 7 sentencing hearing, at which time Redholtz will face a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in federal prison for each child pornography distribution and receipt count, and a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison for each count charged.

Redholtz was charged in Los Angeles Superior Court after his arrest in March 2021 for allegedly possessing CSAM. That charge was dismissed so the federal case against Redholtz could proceed.

Homeland Security Investigations and the United States Postal Inspection Service investigated this matter.

Assistant United States Attorneys Nisha Chandran of the Cyber and Intellectual Property Crimes Section and Amanda B. Elbogen of the Terrorism and Export Crimes Section are prosecuting this case.