SAN FRANCISCO — A former Bay Area daycare worker has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for molesting young children, secretly filming their private parts and distributing the footage to other pedophiles online, federal prosecutors announced Monday.
Jace Wong, 29, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge James Donato. Wong pleaded guilty earlier this year to multiple federal offenses, including production, distribution and possession of child pornography.
Federal prosecutors say the range of videos taken and distributed by Wong included “hands-on” molestation, as well as secret recordings of kids using the restroom. Many of the victims were between the ages of 4 and 6 and attended two daycare centers where Wong worked — Mission Neighborhood Centers in San Francisco and Cape Inc. in Livermore, prosecutors said.
After taking the videos, Wong distributed them on chat group messenger apps like Kik, authorities said.
In a lengthy sentencing memo, Wong’s attorney quoted a doctor the defense hired who blamed a rare syndrome known as Triple X, which occurs when a girl is born with three X chromosomes and can cause developmental delays, for affecting Wong’s judgment. Wong’s attorneys wrote this was compounded by the use of testosterone while Wong was undergoing a gender transition into a transgender man.
Wong issued an apology statement through court papers, apologizing for the “selfish” crimes.
“I am deeply sorry to the victims and their families for the actions I have committed,” Wong wrote. “I know no amount of apologies excuse my behavior(s). I am also sorry and apologetic to my own family, for I did not realize that/how my actions would affect them during my incarceration.”
But Wong was discernably less apologetic in posts made to Kik Messenger chats with others who professed a lewd interest in minors. The U.S. Attorney’s office quotes Wong extensively throughout a sentencing memo as admitting to molesting kids in grotesque detail. In one such post, Wong wrote, “I just pretend I’m having trouble changing their diaper” while molesting kids in front of others. Wong then went on to say, “the parents should stop sending their kids to school in tight pants,” court records show.
Prosecutors called Wong a “systemic predator of toddler and preschool-aged children.”
“Not only did he victimize the children by touching them and taking photos and videos, but the defendant also compounded the harm by distributing the photos and videos on the internet,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Kelsey Davidson wrote in a sentencing memo.