Sacramento County Man Pleads Guilty to Cyberstalking

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Michael Jameson Chand, 32, of Sacramento County, pleaded guilty today to cyberstalking, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced.

According to court documents, Chand intentionally engaged in a course of conduct to harass or intimidate the victim, Jane Doe, and used a cellphone and the internet to do so. This course of conduct caused Jane Doe substantial emotional distress, in part, because Chand had previously committed crimes against her. In 2017, Chand was convicted in California for offenses that included eliciting child sexual exploitation material from Jane Doe, who was 15 years old at the time. Chand was sentenced to two years in jail for that conviction.

On Dec. 23, 2019, while on parole, Chand posted a public Facebook post under an alias, including Jane Doe’s full name, falsely claimed that she was dating a murderer, and asking, “please everybody help me get her into a mental hospital if you want her contact info let me know please.” Then, between June and October of 2020, he called her approximately 176 times and left 63 voicemail messages. Many of the voicemail messages contained insults and threats against Jane Doe and her family.

Additionally, Chand created multiple social media accounts, some under aliases, to contact and harass Jane Doe. Using such accounts, he made posts publicly naming Jane Doe, and saying things that were designed to harass and intimidate Jane Doe. For example, in a public Facebook post made on August 5, Chand listed Jane Doe’s full name, her city and state of birth, and included a photo from her social media account, and falsely stated that “she killed her ex [boyfriend].” He also falsely claimed that Jane Doe had planned to move in with and would expose her “baby” to a “rapist,” and wrote, “Please help me find a way to get the poor kid away from her.”

This case is the product of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Sacramento Sheriff’s Office, and the Sacramento Valley Hi-Tech Task Force. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Adrian T. Kinsella and Christina McCall are prosecuting the case.

Chand is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge John A. Mendez on Jan. 7, 2025. Chand faces a maximum statutory sentence of five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. The actual sentence, however, will be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables.