An Orange County church ministry volunteer was sentenced to over 120 years in prison for molesting young girls.
Todd Christian Hartman, 41, of Newport Beach, was convicted of molesting several young minors and possessing hundreds of explicit images of children, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
Hartman had repeatedly molested a girl beginning when she was 6 years old, officials said. He met the girl while volunteering at the Anaheim Vineyard Church children’s ministry.
He was also convicted of molesting the girl’s younger sister while taking sexually suggestive photographs as she was on his lap.
At the time, church leadership changed Hartman’s responsibilities after they “became concerned about him repeatedly pulling children onto his lap,” court documents said.
In 2016, Hartman contacted the father of the two sisters and admitted to the crimes.
In a separate incident, Hartman was also convicted of molesting two girls in 2009 — a 12-year-old and a 14-year-old. While at a sleepover at a Fullerton home, he “groped and fondled their genitals repeatedly,” authorities said.
Investigators also discovered Hartman possessed hundreds of pornographic images of children, including children stripping, dancing in their underwear and performing oral sex.
In February 2015, a search warrant was served at the Newport Beach home Hartman shared with his mother after detectives traced an IP address that had shared several child pornography images to his residence.
“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.”
On Wednesday, Hartman was sentenced to 120 years to life plus an additional four years and four months in prison.
California’s elder parole law allows most convicted felons who are 50 years and older and who have served at least 20 years of their sentence to be eligible for parole.
Spitzer criticized the elder parole law in a Wednesday statement announcing Hartman’s sentencing.
“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,” Spitzer said. “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.”