LOS ANGELES – The owner of a Temecula art gallery who stalked, harassed and attempted to extort as much as $300,000 from art world professionals was sentenced Monday to five years in federal prison.
Jason White, 43, of Temecula, plead guilty in March to two counts of federal stalking.
U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson, who sentenced White to five fears, called White’s crimes ”horrendous” and “very disturbing.”
“Given the ominous, angry and relentless nature of the messages, the victims had a reasonable fear that defendant planned to hunt down and kill their spouses and children,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memo filed with the court. “Indeed, this case is a parent’s worst nightmare that will likely haunt the victims for the rest of their lives because they will always be fearful that defendant may find their children and make good on his threats.”
White targeted several art world professionals with home he had business relationships. When those relationships ended, White put up derogatory information on these professionals on websites White created.
White is the owner of White Galleries located in the 41000 block of Margarita Road in Temecula, according to prosecutors.
According to the criminal complaint, in a text message to his former supervisor, he threatened to find her family and make her pay with “fear, anguish, and pain.”
On several occasions, according to the complaint, White obtained pictures of her child and sent pictures of the child to the victim with comments such as “it will be very unfortunate if something was to happen to him.”
During this time, officials stated in the complaint that White continued to demand payment in exchange for taking down the websites he had created, and made it known to these victims that their business reputation would be ruined and that his websites would forever show up anytime anyone searched for their name on the internet.
Authorities allege that White went to the Facebook page of a well-known artist represented by the art publisher and posted a picture of himself, along with a statement that he was focusing on the artist’s wife and child.
White allegedly wrote that he would be waiting in the bushes to “knee cap a child.” Through the Facebook message, White told the artist, “your children are my end game.
During today’s sentencing hearing, two of the victims spoke, telling Judge Wilson how they felt terrorized by the barrage of threatening emails and texts that White sent them.
White’s “conduct also demonstrates a disturbing and escalating pattern of stalking conduct, particularly since he committed these crimes less than one year after a restraining order was filed against him by another former employer for identical cyber stalking and extortion conduct,” according to the government’s sentencing position papers. “As defendant intended, his stalking crimes traumatized his victims.”