Aptos Child Pornographer, Babysitter Gets 30-Year Prison Sentence

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY, CA — Ryan Michael Spencer, who worked as a babysitter and camp counselor in the Santa Cruz area, was sentenced Wednesday to 30 years in prison for producing and conspiring to distribute and receive child pornography.

In October, Spencer pleaded guilty in San Francisco federal court to two counts of production of child pornography, conspiracy to distribute and receive child pornography, distribution of child pornography, receipt of child pornography, possession of child pornography, and felony contempt of court.

In pleading guilty, Spencer, who was 21 at the time, admitted that he produced pornographic images of more than a dozen children with whom he came into contact through his jobs as a babysitter and camp counselor in the Santa Cruz area. One set of such images depicted Spencer molesting a child that he was babysitting, according to prosecutors. "Spencer created other images by surreptitiously photographing the children’s genitalia and pubic areas while the children were naked and in his care," according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Spencer admitted that, beginning no later than March 2015 and continuing until his arrest in April 2017, he conspired with his co-defendant, Tiburon-area babysitter Bryan Petersen, to trade the child pornography he produced for other images of child pornography that Petersen took of children in Petersen’s care, according to prosecutors.

The two men also conspired to distribute and receive child pornography from other sources. Spencer admitted that he and Petersen shared child pornography using Kik Messenger and that, in the spring of 2016, he filled a hard drive with more than 30,000 images and videos of child pornography and gave it to Petersen, prosecutors said.

During the investigation, Spencer was held in contempt of court based on his refusal to comply with a U.S. District judge's order compelling him to decrypt three electronic devices seized from his Aptos residence during a search warrant. Twenty-one days after being held in civil contempt of court, Spencer decrypted the devices, which were found to contain child pornography, including images and a video of Spencer molesting a child he was babysitting, according to prosecutors.

The investigation began when the FBI executed a search warrant at the home of Spencer’s co-defendant, Bryan Petersen, who was 27 at the time, and found evidence on Petersen’s devices that Spencer was creating child pornography. Spencer pleaded guilty in 2017.