Pre-Trial Hearing Reveals More in Donny Pauling Felony Sex Case

SUTTER COUNTY, Calif.—The latest hearing for accused child molester Donny Pauling took place on Tuesday before Sutter County Superior Court Judge Brian Aronson, and to put it gently, things didn't go well for the (former?) anti-porn zealot. According to an article on the Appeal-Democrat.com website, one sheriff's detective testified that, "Immediately after Donny Pauling had sex with a 16-year-old girl, he threatened to post nude photos of her online, kill her boyfriend and hurt her family if she told anyone." The hearing was prompted by nine felony counts and three misdemeanors with which Pauling is currently charged, though his previous felony charges stemming from a December 2014 arrest—Lewd Act on a Child, Oral Copulation and Unlawful Intercourse—had been the subject of a previous hearing, and Pauling was ordered to trial on those in January. Other testimony at Tuesday's hearing implicated not just Pauling but also former Sutter County Sheriff's Captain Lewis McElfresh. According to one police officer who testified at the hearing, that same 16-year-old girl had told McElfresh that she'd wanted to have sex with Pauling (which even if true, wouldn't let Pauling off the hook for statutory rape), and the officer testified that McElfresh observed the pair fucking while he masturbated nearby. Further testimony brought out how Pauling approached the three underage girls he's accused of having sex with, two of whom were friends with his niece, whom he also fucked several times. "During separate interviews, the girls told officers of Pauling's actions, which included nude massages," wrote Monica Vaughan for the Appeal-Democrat. "One girl said she attended class at Yuba College with Pauling, he drove her home, and while they were studying together, he gave her root beer that made her feel weak and dizzy. She alleged he took off her clothes and had sex with her, told her he took nude photos of her and threatened her. She reported he had sex with her three more times." At the hearing, Pauling's attorney Roberto Marquez noted that the 16-year-old had at one point told police that she had lied about what Pauling had done to her, and used that statement to attempt to impeach the officers' credibility, but Judge Aronson was having none of it. He bound Pauling, who remains in custody, over for trial, and ordered the parties to appear before him on May 29 to set trial dates and review Pauling's bail situation.