July 31, 2026 – SACRAMENTO, CA – Mickey O’Brien, 31, of Sacramento, was arrested Wednesday and is scheduled to appear in court on Thursday, July 30 after a federal grand jury returned an indictment charging him with two counts of attempted sexual exploitation of minors, two counts of sexual exploitation of minors, and one count of committing a sex offense while being required to register as a sex offender, U.S. Attorney Eric Grant announced.

According to court documents, between 2022 and 2023, O’Brien used Snapchat to induce multiple underage girls as young as 11 to produce and send him sexually explicit depictions of themselves. At the time of these alleged offenses, O’Brien was subject to a lifetime sex offender registration requirement in Sacramento County due to prior sex crimes he committed against minors.

Homeland Security Investigations conducted the investigation with assistance from the Internet Crimes Against Children Unit of the Sacramento Valley Hi-Tech Crimes Task Force. Assistant U.S. Attorney Sam Stefanki is prosecuting the case.

If convicted of the counts of sexual exploitation of minors or attempted sexual exploitation of minors, O’Brien faces a mandatory minimum penalty of 15 years in prison and a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison as well as a $250,000 fine. If convicted of committing a sex offense while being a registered sex offender, O’Brien faces a mandatory sentence of 10 years in prison to be served consecutively with any other sentence. Any sentence, however, would be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables. The charges are only allegations; the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute those who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc.

Source: DOJ Release