Mountain View Man Convicted Of Child Porn Sentenced To 15+ Years

SAN JOSE, CA -- A Mountain View man appeared in U.S. District Court last Wednesday and was sentenced to serve over 15 years in prison followed by 10 years of supervised release for his role in a child pornography investigation involving underaged girls.

Grant Sterling Ridder of Mountain View, identified by a spokesman as being in his 20s, was indicted by a federal grand jury in May 2017 and charged with two counts of producing child pornography, three counts of distribution of child pornography, one count of possession of child pornography, three counts of cyberstalking and one count of coercion and enticement of a minor.

According to court documents, law enforcement agents began investigating Ridder after a minor victim, 16, reported that her Facebook account had been accessed without her consent and sexually explicit photographs of her had been posted on the social media page.

A lengthy investigation involving the electronic crimes task force determined that Ridder owned the IP address that accessed the victim’s account when the photographs were being posted. The minor victim had recently ended a relationship with Ridder.

Ridder also used “sextortion” techniques to force another female victim, age 13, to send him sexually explicit photographs of herself. When she refused, Ridder told her that he would show her mother other photographs the victim had previously sent to him depicting the victim undressed. The victim reported that she “became scared” and took several sexually explicit photographs and sent them to Ridder.

A growing cyber-crime, “sextortion” is a term used to describe a form of online exploitation where a sexual predator obtains explicit photos of victims and threatens to publish them online if the victim does not comply with additional requests – typically explicit photos, sexual favors or money.

“Child exploitation is deeply disturbing. To prevent these terrible acts from being perpetrated against innocent children within our communities, the U.S. Secret Service, San Francisco Field Office has taken an active role in combatting these crimes by partnering with the Silicon Valley Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force,” Secret Service Special Agent in Charge Thomas Edwards said from his San Francisco Field Office. “Through the utilization of digital forensic and investigative techniques, the horrific acts committed by Grant Sterling Ridder were identified. Ridder was ultimately brought to justice and held accountable for his heinous actions.”

Ridder admitted to law enforcement officials that he has distributed sexually explicit photographs of his victims on child pornography websites, and if the victims did not comply with his demands, he posted elicit photographs of his victims on their social media platforms.

The case was brought as part of a nationwide initiative led by the Department of Justice, called Project Safe Childhood, which aims to combat child sexual exploitation and leverages federal, state, and local resources to apprehend and prosecute individuals who use the Internet to exploit children.

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