Rodger Githens, a former University of the Pacific professor from West Sacramento, has been convicted in federal court on charges that include attempted enticement of a minor and receipt and distribution of child sexual abuse material. A visiting U.S. district judge handled the bench trial, and Githens is scheduled to return for sentencing on July 20, 2026. Prosecutors say the case started with online messages aimed at what he believed was a 7-year-old child.
According to a Department of Justice release, prosecutors say Githens used a Grindr profile under the name “Tall laid back” in March 2023 to begin chatting, then pushed the undercover account to move the conversation to Telegram. In those chats, he admitted he had “taboo thoughts every day” and that he was into “babies,” according to the government. U.S. Attorney Eric Grant said the verdict “stems from overwhelming evidence of a sickening attempt by a privileged defendant to sexually abuse a 7-year-old child.” Prosecutors say those admissions, along with other explicit messages, formed the backbone of the case against him.
Search warrant and evidence recovered
As reported by CBS Sacramento, federal agents served a search warrant at Githens’s Maryland Avenue home on April 19, 2023, and seized multiple electronic devices. Local coverage and court filings state that investigators uncovered Telegram chats and files showing Githens exchanging and commenting on videos of young children being sexually abused, along with messages in which he allegedly described what he planned to do to a fictional niece. Prosecutors say the FBI led the investigation, with help from the West Sacramento Police Department.
Charges, penalties and what’s next
Per the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of California, Githens was convicted of attempted enticement of a minor and of receiving and distributing child sexual abuse material. Those offenses carry statutory penalties ranging from 10 years to life in prison for the enticement count and from five to 20 years for the receipt and distribution count, along with potential fines and a possible lifetime term of supervised release. Assistant U.S. Attorney David Gappa and McKenzie Hightower of the Department of Justice’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section are prosecuting the case. The court will decide his final sentence at the July 20 hearing. Prosecutors say the case is part of Project Safe Childhood, the federal initiative focused on combating online child exploitation.
Why this matters locally
The conviction lands amid a series of federal and state prosecutions in the region that target online sexual exploitation of children. The Sacramento Bee recently highlighted a January 2026 federal sentence in a similar child sexual abuse material case, while national updates from the FBI show comparable enforcement efforts across the country. Local advocates and investigators point to these cases as reminders of the persistent risks linked to encrypted messaging platforms and niche social apps…