Leigha Simonton, United States Attorney, Northern District of Texas | U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Texas
A former preschool teacher from Abilene, Mark Penfield Eichorn, has received a 30-year federal prison sentence for producing child pornography. This sentence was pronounced by U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix and was announced by Chad E. Meacham, the Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas. Eichorn, 28, was indicted in June 2024 and pled guilty in October 2024.
Eichorn was charged with paying two boys, aged 12 and 13, to record sexually explicit videos. Judge Hendrix sentenced him to 360 months imprisonment—the statutory maximum—and ordered him to pay $66,087.50 in restitution. At sentencing, Judge Hendrix emphasized the necessity of the maximum punishment for public protection, stating, “I have to make a lot of difficult decisions. This is not one of them.”
Acting U.S. Attorney Meacham described the actions against children as a core mission of his office. He expressed hope that such severe punishment would deter other child predators and provide some comfort to the victims and their families, saying, “We hope that the maximum punishment in this case serves as a message to other child predators, and that the victims and their families find some measure of comfort knowing that this abuser will be off the streets for a very long time.”
Travis Pickard, Special Agent in Charge with Homeland Security Investigations Dallas, criticized Eichorn’s decision to exploit children, highlighting the need to protect potential victims. “This defendant made the depraved decision to exploit children, not only failing to meet any standard of human decency but choosing to victimize them through the production of sexually explicit materials,” he said. Pickard acknowledged the collaborative efforts of law enforcement in ensuring Eichorn’s incarceration, thus preventing further harm.
Court documents reveal that Eichorn struggled with desires to sexually assault children since 2019, while he continued his employment as a teacher and engaged in trading child pornography online through platforms such as Kik and Telegram. The documents also show his involvement in trafficking prepubescent child pornography, including videos of children as young as 10 engaged in explicit activities.
Eichorn contacted one victim offering to be a “Sugar Daddy,” eventually paying the victims hundreds of dollars for producing explicit videos. At the time of his arrest, he was employed in a local private school.
Chad E. Meacham praised agencies such as Homeland Security Investigations—Abilene Resident Agency, the Abilene Police Department, and the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office, Georgia, for their investigative work. The prosecution was handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Whitney Ohlhausen.
This case was pursued under Project Safe Childhood, an initiative by the Department of Justice started in 2006 to combat child sexual exploitation. Additional information on the initiative can be obtained from the Department of Justice website.
