Porn preacher popped

Donny Pauling made a name for himself in Chico more than a decade ago by producing pornography. Then he abruptly left the industry, claiming he’d found God. In the past three months, however, he’s been charged with 13 felonies and one misdemeanor of sexual abuse involving underage girls in Shasta and Sutter counties. And the investigation isn’t even close to being over.

Pauling’s story is nothing if not unique. The son of a pastor, he rebelled against his father and the church at a young age. In his mid-20s, he bought a video camera and set up a porn studio in downtown Chico (above where Beach Hut Deli now sits). He made a lot of money, and it was relatively easy. In an interview with the CN&R in 2007, he said, “The society we live in glamorizes porn. A lot of kids grow up thinking it’s cool to be in porn. So it wasn’t tough for me [to find models].”

After about seven years of running his own website, as well as supplying content for others under the pseudonym Donovan Philips, Pauling had an epiphany. To be fair, a few events led up to it. First, his fiancée left him. Then he started taking to heart phone calls and emails from women he’d photographed, pleading for him to take their photos off the Internet. One threatened suicide if he didn’t; several told him of ruined relationships with their families because of him.

“There are girls all over Chico who have been hurt,” he said back in 2007. At the time, he estimated he’d photographed at least 500 Chico State students—and even some faculty members—during his producer days.

So he joined the seminary and turned his attention to anti-porn activism by way of XXXChurch, which sent him around the country to panel discussions and as a motivational speaker about the ills of pornography. He started a website, donnypauling.net, where he keeps his blog. The last entry is from late 2014.

That’s around the time one of his alleged victims came forward. The 16-year-old girl, a relative who had been living with Pauling for several years, told Sutter County sheriff’s deputies that the two had had a sexual relationship for three years, according to Anu Chopra, senior deputy district attorney in Sutter County.

“He was the caretaker of the child—they lived together in Shasta County, then moved to Yuba City,” Chopra explained. During that time, she said, Pauling and the girl allegedly had a sexual relationship. She also alleged that he photo-graphed the girl with other young girls in various poses.

Eventually the girl told her mother, and that’s when the authorities got involved. In that case, the 41-year-old Pauling has been charged with five felonies. The first three, all in Shasta County but handled out of the Sutter County DA’s office, include performing lewd or lascivious acts on a child under 13 as well as on a child 14 or 15 years old, and oral copulation with a child under 14. The final two, in Sutter County, include performing lewd or lascivious acts on a child 14 or 15 years old and sexual intercourse with a minor.

The second case, for which Pauling faces arraignment Friday (March 13), involves a different girl. That case charges Pauling with one misdemeanor and eight felonies, including several instances of sexual intercourse as well as oral copulation and penetration with a foreign object on a minor.

Chopra couldn’t elaborate on that case because it has not yet gone to preliminary hearing, but news coverage in the area indicates it involves Sutter County sheriff’s Capt. Lewis F. McElfresh Jr. Pauling told CBS 13 in Sacramento that McElfresh, a friend, invited him over to have sex with his 16-year-old relative. Chopra did confirm that McElfresh, who is also in custody and charged with multiple felony sex crimes, was related to this case.

Chopra said she will be filing a third case against Pauling in the coming weeks and that the investigation is ongoing. She could not confirm rumors about potential victims in Butte County at this time.