Louisville man sentenced to 6 years probation in child porn case

Mitchell Byars, Daily Camera, Boulder, Colo.
·1 min read

Mar. 31—A Louisville man who pleaded guilty to downloading child pornography was sentenced to six years of probation.

Matthew Harold Johnson, 30, pleaded guilty in January to sexual exploitation of a child, with attorneys stipulating that he would not serve any jail time but would be placed on sex offender intensive supervised probation for a period of time to be determined by a judge.

On March 19, Boulder District Judge Norma Sierra sentenced Johnson to six years of sex offender intensive supervised probation, along with 100 hours of community service.

Johnson will have to register as a sex offender, and is not allowed to have contact with anyone under 18 for the duration of his probation sentence outside of court-approved visits with relatives.

According to an arrest affidavit, the Boulder County District Attorney's Office received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children about someone in Louisville downloading suspected child pornography on Dec. 18.

The DA's Office then passed the tip on to the Louisville Police Department, which opened an investigation. A detective examined the files that were downloaded and determined they contained photos and videos of child pornography, with some of the girls in the photos estimated to be only 2 or 3 years old.

Investigators were able to track the files to an IP address and an email address. Due to his involvement in a previous and unrelated call, Louisville police already had that address and email on file for Johnson.

Police applied for a search warrant and went to Johnson's house on Thursday to interview him. According to the affidavit, Johnson admitted to downloading images of underage girls.

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