SACRAMENTO - A 68-year-old retired Air Force master sergeant from Fairfield indicted in May of 2017 on federal child sex predator charges was sentenced Thursday to 17 years and eight months in prison for attempted online enticement of a minor, U.S. Attorney McGregor W. Scott announced. According to court documents, in April 2017, Donald Threatt began conversing through the Kik Messenger mobile app with an individual who identified herself as “Sarah,” a 15-year-old girl who was interested in online games, soccer, and track.
Off and on over the course of many days, Threatt used Kik to tell “Sarah” the various sexual things he wanted to do to her. He discussed and agreed with the purported minor that he would visit her residence on Beale Air Force Base while her mother was away. According to the Kik chat, Threatt suggested blindfolding her and tying her up with rope. He stated that he would engage in various sexual acts with her and proposed that they take photos and a video of their sexual activity. Threatt arranged to meet her at her residence on May 12, 2017, after her mother had left for the weekend.
Unbeknownst to Threatt, the minor was actually an undercover law enforcement agent. On the day of the planned meeting, law enforcement personnel surveilled Threatt as he left his home in Fairfield, purchased rope from a home improvement store, and drove to the house where the meeting with the minor was to occur. Threatt was arrested after he pulled into the garage of the house. In his car, agents found cameras, a tripod, rope, and condoms.
According to court documents, this was not the first time Threatt attempted to prey on a child. Agents searched Threatt’s residence and seized a computer hard drive containing approximately 800 internet chats from 2008. Together, those communications showed he had been communicating with several girls under the age of 18. In those communications, Threatt discussed how he wanted to have sexual relations with the underage girls and repeatedly solicited and received nude photographs from at least one minor. In addition, in 2013, Threatt was arrested after he used email to attempt to persuade an undercover law enforcement officer that he believed to be a 15-year-old girl to meet with him to have sex. Threatt was prosecuted in state court for that offense.
This case was the product of an investigation by the Air Force Office of Special Investigations and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Matthew D. Segal, Jeremy J. Kelley, and Katherine T. Lydon prosecuted the case.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute those who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc. Click on the “resources” tab for information about internet safety education.
