Santa Rosa man sentenced in federal court for ‘obscenity crimes’ involving children

A Santa Rosa man has been sentenced to 33 years and nine months in federal prison for running a website of obscene stories about rape, murder and sexual abuse of young children.

Ron Kuhlmeyer, 65, ran the website from Belize, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, which added that the site included stories written by Kuhlmeyer and other offenders.

Kuhlmeyer ran the website in October and November 2022 and charges were filed against him in March, according to a complaint filed in federal court.

He was arrested March 9 in Texas following an investigation conducted by Homeland Security Investigations and the FBI, along with the Belize government. Officials didn’t specify why Kuhlmeyer was in Texas.

Court proceedings were held there and Kuhlmeyer pleaded guilty on June 13 to five counts of importation or transportation of obscene matters and one count of distributing obscene visual representations of the sexual abuse of children.

His sentencing took place Oct. 5 in Texas, as well. He appeared in the U.S. District Court, Western District of Texas Midland-Odessa Division, officials said.

“Some of the stories on Kuhlmeyer’s website described the rape, torture, and murder of children, while others were accompanied by lifelike computer-generated images of prepubescent children being sexually abused,” federal officials wrote in a statement.

Kuhlmeyer was arrested locally in October 2007 and charged with more than a dozen counts of lewd or lascivious acts with a child, according to Sonoma County Superior Court records.

The incidents occurred from July 2004 through September 2007. At the time, he had been working locally as a radio anchor and news reporter for KZST and KJZY.

Investigators said in 2007 Kuhlmeyer engaged in sexual activity with a girl beginning when she was 11 years old.

Kuhlmeyer was 45 at the time.

Detectives said he let the girl use a computer in his bedroom, where he exposed her to pornography and sexual material before touching her breasts and thigh area.

Kuhlmeyer pleaded guilty in March 2008 to one count of continuous sexual abuse of a child. All the other charges he’d faced were dismissed.

He was sentenced to six years in prison in that case. The victim later criticized Kuhlmeyer in a 2008 interview with The Press Democrat.

Federal officials added, earlier this month, that Kuhlmeyer included stories on his website that also appeared on another website of similar material called, Mr. Double.

In June 2021, Mr. Double’s 65-year-old administrator, Thomas Arthur of Terlingua, Texas, was sentenced to 40 years in prison.

He began operating the site in 1996 and charged members for access beginning in 1998, according to the DOJ.

“Evidence at trial showed that the website was Arthur’s sole source of income for more than 20 years,” officials wrote in a news release in June. “The site was taken offline in November 2019 when the FBI executed a search warrant at his residence near Terlingua, where Arthur administered the site.”

You can reach Staff Writer Colin Atagi at colin.atagi@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @colin_atagi.