See the update on police and prosecutors alleging Michael Mordaunt posed as a surfer boy online to lure 17 girls, some of whom he met and molested.
ORIGINAL POST, JULY 18, 6:08 A.M.: The occupation of a Cypress man arrested for allegedly trying to contact teen-age girls via the Internet for sex and possessing child pornography has investigators worried. That's because 45-year-old Michael Theodore Mordaunt works in information technology for Boeing in Seal Beach.
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Mordaunt has been the subject of an investigation over the past several months by the Cypress and Garden Grove police departments, with assistance from the Orange County District Attorney's office (OCDA) and the Orange County Child Exploitation Task Force, according to a statement from Garden Grove Police Lt. Ben Stauffer.
Shortly after leaving his home at 6:50 a.m. Thursday morning, Mordaunt was pulled over in the 5900 block of Cathy Avenue in Cypress and arrested, according to Stauffer, who added search warrants were then served at the suspect's home and place of work in Seal Beach.
Orange County-based computer forensic analysts from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) scanned all of Mordaunt's electronic devices for evidence of child pornography and the attempts to lure young girls over the Internet for sex, Stauffer said.
“It was certainly a concern among forensics guys that they might have their work cut out for them” due to Mordaunt's profession, Stauffer said separately to City News Service.
According to Mordaunt's Linkedin page, he's an information technology system administrator who has been with Boeing in Seal Beach since 2000 and has previously worked in IT or electronics-related jobs with the Los Angeles County Department of Social Services, Blytheco, Cam Data Systems and the U.S. Air Force. He attended Chapman University and UC Irvine for his undergrad and MIT for his post-graduate degrees.
A Mater Dei High School alumni newsletter indicates he graduated from there in 1987 and, at least as of 2007, was married with a wife, a son and a daughter. He also pops up in a Cypress Council of Knights of Columbus newsletter.
Mordaunt was booked at the Orange County Jail on suspicion of child annoyance and possession of child pornography, but if more victims are discovered the OCDA will likely file additional counts and/or charges. If you or someone you know are aware of other victims in the case, you are asked to contact Investigator Young at 714.741.5836.
UPDATE, JULY 25, 3:13 P.M.: Cypress and Garden Grove police and the Orange County District Attorney's office are reaching out to the public in case there are other alleged victims of Michael Theodore Mordaunt, who is accused as posing as a surfer boy on social media to meet 17 underage girls, some of whom he is said to have met and molested.
The 45-year-old Cypress father, who works as an information technology officer with Boeing of Seal Beach, created multiple MySpace and Facebook profiles–using an image of a young teenage boy on a surfboard–to contact girls ages 12-16 between Feb.
25, 2009, through Jan. 15 of this year, according to Deputy District Attorney Bobby
Taghavi.
“There's so many we're hoping more (girls) come forward,” Taghavi told City News Service. “… It happened for a long time. It seems like it was pretty prolific.”
Mordaunt allegedly sought and received sexually explicit photos from multiple girls and is accused of carrying on sexually charged conversations with some, Taghavi adds. Finding more victims has been hampered by the summer school break, the prosecutor added.
Tips are being collected by Supervising District Attorney Investigator Paul Carvo at 714.347.8794, Garden Grove police Det. Dave Young at 714.741.5836 and Cypress Det. Deanna Hartman at 714.229.3391.
Mordaunt, who is scheduled to be arraigned Monday, is already on the hook for charges that could send him to state prison for 27 years and four months with a conviction. He was charged last week with 14 counts of contacting a child with the intent to commit a specified crime, five counts of lewd acts on a child, two counts of lewd acts on a child younger than 14, two counts of meeting a minor with the intent to engage in lewd conduct and a count of possession and control of child pornography, all felonies. He also faces a sentencing enhancement allegation for substantial sexual conduct with a child.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.