GALVESTON, Texas – A former deputy with the Matagorda County Sheriff’s Office has been sentenced to 32 years in prison for producing and possessing child pornography, the United States Department of Justice announced Tuesday.
Pasquale Salas, 29, was employed with the department at the time of his crimes. He pleaded guilty on June 6.
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Salas is now ordered to serve 360 and 24 months for the production and possession convictions, respectively. They will run consecutively for a total of 384 months of imprisonment. Salas was further ordered to serve 15 years on supervised release following the completion of his prison term. During that time, the DOJ said he would have to comply with several requirements designed to restrict his access to children and the internet. He will also be ordered to register as a sex offender.
“In handing down the prison terms, the court noted that the fact Salas was a law enforcement officer weighed heavily on him,” U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani is quoted saying in a news release.
Salas was previously sentenced to 220 months in prison in a related case in the District of Massachusetts, the DOJ stated. The term imposed on Tuesday will run concurrently with that sentence for a total federal prison term of 384 months.
“Salas used Minecraft, a child’s game, to lure some of his victims inside his vicious web,” Hamdani said. “Not only did he exploit young girls, but he also violated the public trust. He was a law enforcement officer who was sworn to protect and serve. Instead, he chose to manipulate and exploit young girls for his own deviant sexual gratification. The sentence handed down today will make sure he can’t access the places our children play online or have contact with them in person for decades to come.”
The investigation began after authorities allegedly learned Salas had been communicating with a child in Massachusetts for years, beginning when she was just 12 years old. Salas met her and another young girl online while playing Minecraft, investigators said.
Over the years, Salas allegedly developed a “controlling, manipulative and sexually exploitive relationship” with the victim, according to the DOJ. Investigators said he knew the victim’s age but still had a virtual and sexually explicit relationship with the child. During that time, he reportedly made her send hundreds of nude photos and videos of herself, made her follow specific strict rules, and told her to wear only clothing he approved of. Authorities said he also tracked her location. Sales allegedly threatened the victim’s well-being and that of her family if she left him.
“For years, Pasquale Salas controlled, manipulated, sexually assaulted, and remotely monitored his underage victims,” FBI Houston Acting Special Agent in Charge David Martinez said. “Salas disgracefully used his status as a Texas lawman to threaten young girls into sending hundreds of sexually explicit photos and videos. Thanks to the bravery of his victims who came forward, Salas now sits behind bars unable to ever again target, threaten, or molest other children.”
In July 2019, authorities said they executed a search warrant in Texas as part of the Massachusetts investigation. At that time, investigators said they found incriminating evidence on Salas’ phone, including child pornography of several young girls, including that of a minor female relative.
Forensic analysis revealed Salas produced those images of the relative. She identified herself and the hands of Salas in the images and videos.
“In one video, he appeared to be fondling the victim. She is asleep in all of the images and videos he produced,” the release said.
Salas has been and will remain in custody pending transfer to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near future.
FBI Texas City conducted the investigation with the assistance of the Matagorda County Sheriff’s Office, Pearland Police Department, the FBI in the Boston/Worcester area and the Worcester Police Department in Massachusetts.