Former Sacramento-area youth counselor indicted on federal sex abuse and child porn charges
A federal grand jury on Thursday indicted a Sacramento County man accused of sexually abusing a child, producing images of that abuse and distributing child pornography.
Sam Moss Kerfoot, 27, of Carmichael faces a three-count indictment on charges of sexual exploitation of a minor, distributing child porn and possessing child porn, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Sacramento announced in a news release.
Federal prosecutors said Kerfoot in April 2022 and May 2022 sexually abused a minor and produced visual depictions of the minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
Kerfoot also is accused of distributing images of children being sexually abused in April 2022 and possessing child porn in June of this year, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Kerfoot has prior convictions for sex offenses involving children and was arrested in 2016 after authorities in San Francisco reportedly found him in possession of hundreds of child pornography photos and videos.
County jail and Sacramento Superior Court records show Kerfoot initially was booked on local charges of possessing child porn in a case filed July 14, 2022. He also initially faced a local charge of violating probation in an August 2021 criminal case, in which he was initially charged with attempted forcible lewd act on a child.
Kerfoot has been held since July 12, 2022, in Sacramento County jail custody. He was booked into jail by the Sacramento County Probation Department, and as of Thursday was being held at the Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center.
The federal case against Kerfoot is the result of an investigation by the Sacramento Valley Hi-Tech Crimes Task Force’s Internet Crimes Against Children team, including the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office with help from the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Emily Sauvageau and Alstyn Bennett are prosecuting the case.
If convicted of the charges in the indictment, prosecutors said Kerfoot would face a sentence of 25 to 50 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for the child sexual exploitation charge; 15 years to 40 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for the child porn distribution charge; and 10 years to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for the child porn possession charge.
Registered as a sex offender
Kerfoot remains listed “in violation” as a convicted sex offender on California’s Megan’s Law website. His convictions include attempted lewd or lascivious acts by using force or fear with a child younger than 14 years old and possession of child porn, according to the website.
In November 2016, Kerfoot was arrested in San Francisco after investigators found more than 600 child porn images and videos in his possession, according to the San Francisco Police Department. Kerfoot, at the time, was a nursing student at the University of San Francisco and a former counselor at a Sacramento-area youth camp.
Kerfoot had worked as a counselor for one week each summer for two years at the San Juan Unified School District’s Camp Winthers, a camp near Cascade Lake in the Sierra providing weeklong programs for youths. He also was a camp leader for Mission Oaks Recreation and Park District in Carmichael before his 2016 arrest.
A spokeswoman for the school district said in 2016 that Kerfoot supervised a group of campers during outdoor activities, camp living and evening activities. Camp counselors at the time would be supervise a group of five to six students in grades 5 and up and stayed in the same tent or cabin with them during the week, and the camp counselors were supervised by a credentialed teacher who checked in on them several times throughout the day and night.
A district administrator at Mission Oaks has said Kerfoot was a minor until his last day of working for the park district, his 18th birthday, and that camp counselors in general are never alone with the children.
