Clues in lawsuit lead to Clews the pornographer

On February 13th, a federal judge sentenced Christian Clews — a Carmel Valley rancher who pleaded guilty to possessing and distributing child pornography — to 210 months in prison.

But Clews, a former member of the Carmel Valley Community Planning Group, is also facing civil action.

In January, a lawsuit was filed in San Diego Superior Court by an unnamed woman who was the victim of years of molestation by the owner of a horse ranch. According to the lawsuit, the victim began boarding her horse at the ranch in 1995, when she was 13 years old.

Within a year, the defendant began forcing her to perform oral sex on him. The following year the unnamed defendant then began raping her as well as forcing her to engage in threesomes with his wife present. All the while the defendant would, according to the lawsuit, take "photographs and videos of [the victim] performing said acts...."

The defendant would show the victim videos he took of other minor girls performing sex acts on their toddler and in other instances on the defendant's dog.

While the civil lawsuit does not name Clews specifically, the dates of his arrest coincide with those released in the criminal case.

"In or about October of 2016, law enforcement raided the residence of [defendants] related to allegations of child pornography."

According to the federal criminal case, authorities raided Clews's ranch on October 28, 2016. During that raid they seized over 1000 images and videos of prepubescent girls in sex acts; in some, you could hear Clews in the background. But in his guilty plea, Clews only confessed to owning and distributing the videos.

During his sentencing, as reported, Clews defended himself: "I do not find children sexually attractive at all. I did possess. I did distribute, and I regret that.”

In regards to the civil suit, a judge ordered the case to be sealed to protect the identity of the victim.

The U.S. Attorney's office stated, “No federal charges were filed against the wife…now ex-wife."