SANTA ANA – A former Newport Beach gynecologist pleaded guilty today to federal criminal charges for possessing child sexual abuse material (CSAM) across multiple personally owned devices.
Mark Albert Rettenmaier, 72, of Laguna Hills, pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of child pornography. He is free on $600,000 bond.
According to his plea agreement, on June 7, 2020, Rettenmaier uploaded 15 images of CSAM to an Adobe cloud-based storage system. At least four of the images Rettenmaier uploaded depicted two minors, one under the age of 12, engaging in sexually explicit conduct.
On July 22, 2020, law enforcement officers executed a search warrant of Rettenmaier’s residence and seized his cellphone and a laptop. Upon review of the cellphone, law enforcement identified at least two additional images of CSAM. Review of the laptop revealed at least one video and 209 images of minors engaged in sexual activity.
Rettenmaier admitted that he knowingly downloaded the images and video of CSAM from the internet and stored them on his personal devices.
United States District Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett scheduled an August 6 sentencing hearing at which time Rettenmaier will face a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison for each count. Prosecutors have agreed to recommend that Rettenmaier be sentenced to no more than five years in federal prison.
Rettenmaier will also be required to pay a mandatory minimum of $3,000 restitution to each of six victims named in this case, for a total of at least $18,000.