South Lake Tahoe high school soccer coach sentenced for distributing child porn, feds say

A South Lake Tahoe snowboarding instructor and high school soccer coach was sentenced Monday to five years in prison and five years of supervised release post-incarceration for distributing child pornography, according to federal prosecutors.

Timothy Mackey, 42, worked at Heavenly Mountain Resort and also as a junior varsity boys soccer coach at South Lake Tahoe High School. A news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California said Mackey was a member of group chats on social media that shared explicit images of children.

Mackey was living with his toddler, worked with children as a ski and snowboard instructor and was approved to be a foster parent with his wife prior to his April 2020 arrest, prosecutors said in court filings. He pleaded guilty in federal court in June 2023 to distributing child pornography.

Prosecutors said Mackey appears to have a history of exchanging explicit content depicting children that dates back to at least 2008, and that an FBI database showed an IP address linked to Mackey “was offering child pornography” that year. But that investigation was closed in 2009, “with no information regarding why Mackey was not contacted or charged at that time,” prosecutors wrote in their sentencing memorandum.

“Based on the fact that the FBI opened an investigation into Mackey in 2008, it appears that Mackey has been exchanging (child sexual abuse material) for at least 15 years, and a serious sentence is necessary to deter him from continuing to commit crimes of trafficking in the visual depictions of children being sexually abused.”

Mackey, under the username “bag of rock,” shared nine images of child porn on social media platform LiveMe, the news release stated.

Prosecutors said he also was an administrator of at least one LiveMe group chat that exchanged child porn. He had hundreds of child sexual abuse materials on his phone, which included graphic images of infants and toddlers, prosecutors wrote.

“The fact that he surrounded himself with children (and attempted to surround himself with even more children) while he knew of this proclivity is concerning,” prosecutors’ sentencing memorandum said.

Heather Williams, a federal defense attorney, wrote in her sentencing memorandum that Mackey and his family members have a history of sexual abuse and “early sexualization.” He’s showed a commitment to getting sex offender treatment, the court filing said, because he paid out-of-pocket expenses to a therapist and drove two hours to get help, Williams wrote.

“It is especially notable in a case involving child pornography, as many people convicted of these offenses attempt to hide away from the shame associated with such charges,” Williams wrote. “Mr. Mackey has chose a different route: being honest with his family and support network about his offense and his journey to overcome his use of pornography.”

But prosecutors said in the court filings that if indeed Mackey was abused as a child, he should have been more sensitive to the victimization of children — not less.