Child pornographer sentenced to 13 years

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Jeff Matheson, 41, Balsam Lake, Wis. was sentenced Thursday, May 10, by U.S. District Judge William Conley to 13 years in prison followed by supervised release for life for distributing images of child pornography on

the Internet.

Matheson pleaded guilty to the charge on Feb.23, 2012.

According to court records, on Dec.12, 2010, an FBI agent signed on to an

undercover computer in Plano, Texas and accessed a peer-to-peer file sharing program.

The agent saw that a user was sharing child pornography files. The agent started downloading files from that user's account and downloaded 399 files in 20 minutes. The agent captured the IP address for that user with special software. The IP address came back to a subscriber in Balsam Lake.

The FBI obtained a search warrant for the subscriber's residence and executed the warrant on March 18, 2011. Agents found a Gateway computer located on a table in the dining room. Forensic analysis of the computer showed that it contained multiple files of child pornography.

The FBI interviewed Jeff Matheson at the residence. Matheson admitted to the FBI that he used peer-to-peer software to search the Internet to find photos of children.

He said he made all of his photos and movies available for sharing using peer-to-peer file sharing programs. At the sentencing, Judge Conley noted that during Matheson's interviews he indicated in appropriate fantasies about sexual abuse of young girls.

The judge also found that Matheson had a 20-year experience with this

unlawful conduct. Matheson admitted that he has been collecting child pornography since college. He also told the FBI that he periodically felt guilty and would purge his collection, but then start it up all over again. This conduct continued even after his wife found out about his collection of child pornography, and even after the FBI seized his

computer and storage devices on March 18, 2011, when Matheson had a friend get him a new computer.

In imposing the sentence, Judge Conley explained that Matheson posed a very

significant danger to the community. The judge noted that Matheson had sexual contact with a girl (age 4-5 years old).

Matheson admitted to at least four other sexual contacts with female children.

Judge Conley told Matheson that "these are as bad a set of facts this Court has seen in a child pornography distribution case."

The charges against Matheson were the result of an investigation conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Polk County Sheriff's Office.

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