A Moorpark man has been hit with an 11-year-plus prison sentence after attempting to coax sexual activity from someone he thought was a minor. Thomas Kern Gissell, 29, was dinged with a 140-month stay in the big house today by United States District Judge John F. Walter, according to a U.S. Department of Justice release.
In addition to his lengthy-term, Gissell was sentenced to 20 years of supervised release following his eventual release from prison, as well as being ordered to cough up $5,100 in special assessments and a hefty $27,000 in restitution. During his guilty plea on January 5, Gissell admitted to one count of attempted enticement of a minor to engage in criminal sexual activity, which investigators revealed involved soliciting nude photos via social media from what he believed to be a 14-year-old girl.
The Ventura County District Attorney's Office initially got wise to Gissell after he contacted undercover law enforcement officers who were posing online as teenage girls. According to the complaint filed in this case, Gissell not only chatted up with the undercover agents but also requested explicit images and sent a lingerie gift card as well as pictures of the lingerie he desired the girl to buy.
In the sting operation set in August and September of 2022, Gissell knowingly chased a fantasy that turned out to be the handiwork of the Ventura County Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force—a coalition of local and federal law enforcement agencies, including the FBI. They arrested Gissell originally in February 2023 and have dedicated themselves to fast responses to the sexual victimization of children. This being their inaugural criminal case brought forth.
The Task Force's specially trained members pulled the curtain back on Gissell's actions, employing their deep-seated expertise in the investigation of online child sexual exploitation and human trafficking. Assistant United States Attorney Kellye M. Ng of the Violent and Organized Crime Section hammered the case home in court.
Contacted by the press, Public Information Officer Ciaran McEvoy pointed to the significance of the cooperative effort that led to Gissell's sentencing. Ciaran McEvoy told members of the media, "Protecting our children from predators like Gissell is paramount, and it takes seamless partnership across agencies to make it happen."
