Everett man released without bail after arraignment on child pornography charges

Investigation seizes thousands of illicit images on several electronic devices

By The Advocate

An Everett man is facing multiple child pornography charges following a months-long investigation triggered by a cyber tip from Microsoft and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), police said. John A. McDonald, a resident of Cleveland Avenue, is accused of possessing thousands of images of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) found across several electronic devices seized from his home during a court-authorized search in February. According to police documents, the investigation began in November 2024 when Microsoft flagged a disturbing image uploaded during a Bing visual search. The image — believed to depict the abuse of a female child — was traced to a Verizon Fios IP address later linked to McDonald’s residence.

After receiving the tip in early February, investigators from the Massachusetts State Police Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) task force and Everett Police subpoenaed Verizon, confirming the IP address was assigned to the residence McDonald shared with his wife Paula Sterite. Police executed a search warrant on Feb. 28 and seized 15 devices from the home. Four of those devices were found to contain suspected CSAM, including:

• A Dell desktop computer that contained over 2,000 image thumbnails of suspected abuse and showed recent viewing activity through its memory cache; investigators also found evidence of over 400 visits to dark web websites known to host illegal material.
• A Toshiba laptop containing 154 images believed to be CSAM, located within a deleted virtual machine; forensic evidence indicated the images might have dated back to as early as 2016.
• An 8-terabyte external drive, which reportedly held 93 images of suspected CSAM; the drive was used as a backup device for the Dell desktop, and officials say the suspect likely initiated the backup process manually.
• A 1-terabyte external drive containing 14 images of CSAM recovered from deleted files, along with numerous suggestive images of underage individuals.

Police say the use of virtual machines and dark web browsing demonstrated a “sophisticated level of computing knowledge.”

The search and seizure were carried out under the authority of two separate warrants, one of which removed date restrictions on the forensic analysis. Investigators said the volume of material, especially on the 8-terabyte drive, required the assistance of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security due to its size. Despite the volume of disturbing content found, McDonald is not being charged for material located in the system’s cache or temporary memory, which might not meet legal thresholds for possession.

A laptop belonging to his Sterite, was also examined and returned after it was found to contain no illegal content. No charges have been filed against her.

Authorities are now seeking three counts of possession of child sexual abuse material against McDonald, with additional charges possible pending further analysis.

McDonald was arraigned on Tuesday, Oct. 14, in Malden District Court on three felony counts of possession of child pornography. McDonald was released on personal recognizance under several conditions: He must have no contact with children under 16, stay away from schools and parks, and limit his internet use to legal, medical or financial purposes. His attorney, Richard Sweeney, did not oppose the court’s restrictions.

Judge James Murphy scheduled a trial date for Thursday, December 4, 2025.