Day care worker filmed children going to bathroom and shared videos online, feds say
A man accused of working at day care centers in California to “prey” on children as young as 3 was sentenced to more than two decades in federal prison, prosecutors announced Sept. 26.
While at Mission Neighborhood Centers day care in San Francisco between March 2021 and April 2021, former employee Jace Wong, 29, took photos and videos of children ages 4 to 6 as they used the bathroom and shared the videos in online group chats and messages, according to a sentencing memorandum filed in court.
He took “screenshots from the original videos/photos that zoomed in on the minors” and proceeded to share the screenshots with others, the sentencing memo says.
Before Wong worked at the San Francisco center, he was employed at Cape Inc. day care in Livermore, where he molested 3- and 4-year-olds in his care and recorded videos of the “hands-on” contact between August 2019 and December 2020, prosecutors said.
Wong shared the photos and videos of the children at Cape Inc. to the “dark web,” according to prosecutors who said Wong stopped filming them when they “moved away from him.”
In one online post in December 2020, Wong wrote “the parents should stop sending their kids to school in tight pants,” the sentencing memo says.
After victimizing at least six children in total, Wong was arrested after he sent a child pornography video of a girl using the bathroom at Mission Neighborhood Centers to an undercover officer in April 2021, according to prosecutors and the sentencing memo.
McClatchy News contacted both Bay area day cares for comment on Sept. 27 and didn’t receive an immediate response.
A judge sentenced Wong to serve 25 years in prison for production, attempted production distribution and possession of child pornography, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of California said in a Sept. 26 news release.
In court, several of Wong’s victim’s parents gave impact statements, according to the government’s sentencing memo.
“I miss the smiles of my girls that I remember seeing and knowing prior to Wong’s malicious abuse…”(it) feels like (the) entire family is experiencing a lifelong disease that will impact everyone in the family forever,” one parent said.
McClatchy News contacted Wong’s defense attorney Douglas Horngrad for comment on Sept. 27 and didn’t receive an immediate response.
In a sentencing memo submitted on Wong’s behalf, Horngrad wrote Wong’s conduct could be explained, in part, by Triple X syndrome, a chromosomal disorder which has caused his lifelong “developmental, cognitive and behavioral deficits.”
Wong was diagnosed with the syndrome at birth, when he was born as a biological female, according to his sentencing memo. The Mayo Clinic estimates Triple X syndrome, when a person has three X chromosomes instead of two, affects around 1 in 1,000 people born female.
Horngrad cited a doctor who reviewed Wong’s medical history and determined the effects of his Triple X syndrome was amplified by testosterone, which he received while undergoing his gender transition, the sentencing memo says.
“I realize/admit that my actions were wrong and I truly regret my actions…I am deeply sorry to the victims and their families,” Wong wrote in his sentencing memo.
Meanwhile, prosecutors emphasized Wong intentionally chose to work with young children at one day care before moving on to work at another day care in their sentencing memo.
“In October 2020, (Wong) experienced increased sexual urges and reached out to his doctor to lower his libido,” prosecutors wrote. “Rather than quit his job, however, the defendant worked at Cape, Inc. for two more months and then got a job at a new daycare in the future.”
Wong has been in federal custody since April 2021, prosecutors said. After serving his prison sentence, he must serve 15 years of supervised release, according to prosecutors.
“This case is heartbreaking, to say the least… It is not possible to measure the harm he caused,” U.S. Attorney Ismail J. Ramsey said in a statement.
This story was originally published September 27, 2023 at 11:04 AM with the headline "Day care worker filmed children going to bathroom and shared videos online, feds say."
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