UC Berkeley stalking case leads to child pornography charges

A former UC Berkeley student accused of stalking his ex-girlfriend after she broke up with him is now facing child pornography charges, court papers show.

UC Berkeley police said they discovered more than 600 images on his cellphone depicting children under 18 engaging in or simulating sexual conduct. 

At least 10 of those images showed children under 12, authorities wrote in court papers reviewed by The Scanner this week.

The case began in September when a female UC Berkeley student told the University of California Police Department that someone was harassing her with threatening texts. 

That person had masked their identity but included identifying details — such as her dorm and dorm room location — that made the student fear for her safety, authorities said.

The young woman was so concerned that she sought emergency permission to move home with her parents so her stalker couldn't find her, police wrote.

She also told investigators she had broken up with her boyfriend, Daniel Eric Mangum, 25, just five days earlier, and gave his contact details to police.

Once UCPD began to look into Mangum, they found records linking him to the threats, authorities wrote.

Mangum is listed in the public UC Berkeley campus directory but his Cal affiliation was not immediately available. 

Authorities charged Mangum with felony stalking and later added charges that he had disobeyed an order prohibiting him from contacting the victim and tried to convince her not to testify, according to charging papers. 

According to court papers, he sent her messages via Instagram, Spotify and Pinterest.

Meanwhile, UC Berkeley police continued to investigate the case. 

As part of the investigation, a UCPD detective sent Mangum's cellphone to a crime lab for analysis, which ultimately turned up what police described as 18 videos and more than 500 images of children under 18 engaged in sexual conduct.

When police tried to interview Mangum about their findings last week, he "invoked his right to an attorney, and I was unable to get a statement from him," the detective wrote.

On Monday, the DA's office charged Mangum with possessing more than 600 images of child pornography, according to court records.

The same day, Judge Michael Risher denied a request by Mangum's attorney to release him on his own recognizance. 

The judge explained his thinking in a written ruling, noting that Mangum had "sent a series of horrible, threatening messages to his former girlfriend" while using an online service to hide his identity.

At that point, Risher wrote, he had released Mangum under house arrest "with an order not to contact the victim" in light of his "lack of prior record and other circumstances."

But Mangum then "repeatedly violated that order, attempting to persuade her not to testify, even after she asked him to stop," the judge wrote. "Mangum has also told her that she is responsible for his predicament and harassed her by enrolling her in memberships with sex-toy companies and other organizations." 

The judge wrote that he was not convinced the defendant would physically harm anyone, but said he did not know if Mangum would follow the law either.

"Although he has temporarily stopped this behavior," Risher wrote, "he poses a substantial risk of again harassing the victim and violating the criminal protective order if released." 

For now, Mangum remains in custody at Santa Rita Jail with a bail of $150,000 between the two cases, according to booking records.

He is set to return to court Dec. 26 to enter a plea in the new case.

The Scanner has asked authorities for a booking photograph and will update this story if it is provided.