Sex offender with long history of offenses gets 10-year sentence for child pornography

There is little dispute that John Maasen has had a sexual attraction to children for decades.

The 65-year-old Olivehurst man began committing acts of indecent exposure while in his teens, and in 1974 he was convicted of lewd and lascivious conduct with a child under 14 after he exposed himself to a young girl and tried to get her to touch him, court records say.

He was sent to Atascadero State Hospital at the age of 18 for four years as a “mentally disordered sex offender,” and after his release he was convicted two more times of indecent exposure, once in 1983 and again in 1990, court records say.

Now, Maasen is headed back to prison on a 10-year sentence for possession of child pornography that his own lawyer says he may not survive due to his health and age.

Maasen was sentenced Tuesday by U.S. District Judge John A. Mendez following a guilty plea last June that could have netted him as much as 20 years in prison.

Court filings depict a defendant who was deeply troubled by his past and his own actions.

Assistant Federal Defender Lexi Negin wrote in a sentencing memorandum that Maasen “was subjected to horrific child sexual abuse at the hands of his father,” and that the history of treatment at Atascadero “reads more like a horror story” than an attempt at rehabilitation.

“The ‘treatment’ he received during his four years at Atascadero likely did more harm than good,” Negin wrote. “Physically and emotionally immature, likely gay, and only 18 years old, Mr. Maasen was thrown into a sex offender program with adult males of all ages.

“It appears that the focus of treatment for Mr. Maasen was akin to conversion therapy to force him to be straight.”

Following his release from prison in 1991 and his completion of parole in 1994, Negin wrote, Maasen “has worked full time and has not been arrested.”

“His life has been an unremarkable, generally law-abiding one,” Negin wrote. “He registered as a sex offender in the places he worked and lived, and he no longer committed acts of indecent exposure or any crimes outside his home.”

But he apparently could not control himself.

Court papers say undercover agents investigating child pornography on the internet first observed him in January 2016 sharing “multiple files” online. By spring of 2018, he was observed sharing a video with images “containing sadistic sexual exploitation” of a young girl who appeared to be bound and blindfolded.

Investigators who searched his home in January 2019 found eight videos and 1,178 images involving child pornography on his desktop computer, as well as a browser history of visits to websites with names such as “Little-Girl-Sex,” “daughter and dad” and “very naked little girl,” court papers filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Shea Kenny say.

“He admitted to using file-sharing torrents to download child pornography,” court papers say. “He admitted that, recently, he had been smoking marijuana and that he was viewing more child pornography at that time.

“Troublingly, Maasen admitted that his phone contained pictures of (teenage relatives) in bathing suits, and he told the interviewing agents that he took pictures of young boys at his church.”

But authorities found that most of the videos and images on his computer had been in the recycle bin, and that Maasen appeared to have tried to delete them at various times.

A forensic evaluation of his computer history showed he would view child pornography, then watch Christian videos. Then, he would return to watching pornography, court documents say.

Arthur Hively, a computer expert with 37 years of law enforcement who compiled a report on Maasen’s computer, wrote that he had investigated more than 100 child pornography cases and interviewed scores of suspects.

“One common theme during the years was one in which individuals would indicate to me that they would get the urge to obtain and view CP,” Hively wrote. “This urge would build and build until they accessed sites/programs where the CP could be obtained.

“After viewing the CP for days or weeks, the individual would delete all of the CP due to the built-up guilt that came from the knowledge that watching the CP was wrong and immoral. At times, they would also remove the software program they were using to access the CP (both on mobile devices and computers).

“While reviewing the reports in this case, as well as during my examination of the digital evidence, it appeared that this same theme was occurring again. Mr. Maasen told the agents that he viewed CP that he downloads for a month or two he deletes them because he ‘wants to stop the behavior.’ ”

Maasen’s attorney argues that there is no evidence that he had returned to his history of indecent exposure or that “his conduct was escalating in any way.”

“Mr. Maasen’s devices speak to his remorse for his own actions and his personal struggle with this material,” Negin wrote. “For example, the media player shows that child pornography videos were viewed in between viewing materials with religious messages.

“His computer was used for all manner of things, including his participation in his religion. His computer bears out a pattern of receiving child pornography via the internet and then deleting it.”

Negin also argued that Maasen’s age and various ailments mean he could spend the rest of his life in prison.

“He has diabetes, neuropathy, arthritis and high blood pressure,” Negin wrote. “He walks with a cane. His age, diabetes and high blood pressure put him at a higher risk to contract COVID-19.

“He will need geriatric care in prison as he is generally suffering from age-related deterioration compounded by his diabetes. Given Mr. Maasen’s age and physical health, he may very well not survive a ten-year prison sentence.”

This story was originally published September 29, 2020 at 12:17 PM.