MATAGORDA COUNTY, Texas — A former Matagorda County deputy will spend 32 years in prison for producing and possessing child porn, the United States Attorney’s Office said.
The investigation began after authorities learned Pasquale Salas, 29, who was active with the sheriff’s office, had been communicating with a then 12-year-old girl in Massachusetts for years. Salas met her and another young girl online while playing Minecraft, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Over the years, he developed a “controlling, manipulative and sexually exploitive relationship with the victim,” the office said. They said he knew her age and still had a virtual sexually-explicit relationship with her. Salas made the girl send hundreds of nude photos and videos of herself, required her to follow specific strict rules, to wear only clothing he approved, and tracked her location, the attorney’s office said. Salas threatened the girl and her family if she left him, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
“Salas used Minecraft, a child’s game, to lure some (of) his victims inside his vicious web,” said U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani. “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.”
Salas was previously sentenced to more than 18 years in prison in a related case in Massachusetts. During that sentencing in 2020, a letter from the victim was read in court.
“He has made my life a living hell for so many years. “I was naive, innocent and very vulnerable,” the teen from Worcester County wrote, according to masslive.com. “My teenage years were wasted over a disgusting human being that I wish I never met.”
When Texas authorities served a search warrant in 2019 as part of the Massachusetts investigation, they found child pornography of several young girls, including a relative on his phone.
Forensic analysis revealed that Salas produced the images of his relative. She identified herself and the hands of Salas in the pictures and videos, the U.S. States Attorney’s Office said. In one video, he appears to be fondling the victim, they said. She is asleep in all the images and videos he produced.
Salas will serve 30 years and another 2 years for the production and possession convictions. The sentences will run consecutively.
“This man deserves a life in hell, because that is what he created for me and so many others,” the Worcester teen wrote in her letter.
“For years, Pasquale Salas controlled, manipulated, sexually assaulted, and remotely monitored his underage victims,” said FBI Houston Acting Special Agent in Charge David Martinez. “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.”
As Salas was being sentenced, the court noted that the fact that Salas was a law enforcement officer weighed heavily on him. After his prison term, Salas will serve 15 years on supervised release. He will also have to comply with requirements designed to restrict his access to children and the internet. He will also be ordered to register as a sex offender.
