A former San Diego State University police sergeant and father of three has pleaded guilty to possessing more than 600 files of child pornography, with some videos showing adults having sex with girls believed to be as young as 6 to 8 years old, authorities said.
Homeland Security Investigations discovered the digital stash during a March 2025 raid on the Riverside County home of Paul Aurelio McClain, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Titles of the pornographic video files found on McClain’s digital devices included phrases such as “pedo lolita preteen,” “14yo Russian Prostitute” and “molested rape,” among more graphic sexual terms, according to an affidavit filed with the complaint. The videos, some of which are more than an hour long, show minors engaged in oral, digital, vaginal and anal sex, and include at least one victim who appears to have intellectual disabilities.
McClain, 46, was arrested following the raid and initially pleaded not guilty to one count of possession of child pornography. On Wednesday, he changed his plea to guilty and admitted to downloading child sexual abuse material depicting real teenagers and prepubescent children engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
He faces up to 20 years in federal prison and is scheduled to be sentenced June 24, prosecutors said. Once released, he will be required to register as a sex offender.
McClain came across Homeland Security’s radar in 2024 as part of an ongoing investigation into users utilizing peer-to-peer networks to download and distribute child sexual abuse material, according to the affidavit. A peer-to-peer network is a system where computers connect directly to share data without a central server, which can enable users to exchange illegal material in a decentralized way that’s harder-to-monitor.
In July 2024, an undercover agent was able to connect directly to a remote host computer and download several files containing child pornography, according to the affidavit.
The agent determined that the host computer had software with the username “astro99999” and an IP address linked to McClain’s home address in Menifee. In February 2025, the agent once again identified the remote host computer with the same username and IP address sharing files of child pornography.
Investigators then executed a search warrant at McClain’s home on March 13, 2025, seized multiple digital devices and arrested him.
In addition to the hundreds of files of child sexual abuse material, they found a recording from what appears to be a hidden camera inside a bathroom in the home showing an adult woman showering and then exiting the shower nude, according to the affidavit.
Investigators interviewed McClain’s wife, who said he was employed as a police officer and had a degree in computer programming and that they lived together at the home with their three children, ages 9, 13 and 16, according to the affidavit. They found a police vehicle in his garage and a police jacket in his bedroom, as well as other clothes with law enforcement insignia.
On the day of the raid, McClain’s supervisor with the San Diego State University Police Department confirmed that he was employed as a sergeant at the department and was not assigned to investigate crimes related to child exploitation, according to the affidavit.
SDSU then released a statement acknowledging that an officer was arrested off-campus and charged with possession of child pornography. The university said that, upon learning of the allegations, they removed the officer from duty, initiated the termination process and launched an investigation of their own.
McClain has been in federal custody since his March 2025 arrest.
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