COOK COUNTY, IL – A convicted sex offender has been charged with child pornography felonies following a months-long Sheriff’s Police investigation, Cook County Sheriff Thomas J. Dart announced today.
In February, Special Victims Division investigators with the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Unit received a cyber tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) about a user on a social media app who downloaded and shared several files containing Child Sex Abuse Material (CSAM). Investigators also discovered that the user was connected to four additional cyber tips about social media accounts that contained files of CSAM.
Cook County Sheriff’s Police obtained and executed search warrants for the social media accounts, which were linked to Matthew Joseph Johnson, 42, of the 200 block of Spring Street in Willow Springs. Johnson is a registered sex offender for a 2022 conviction in Will County for child pornography possession.
On Tuesday, May 6, Johnson was arrested and transported to Sheriff’s Police Headquarters where, after being issued his Miranda Warning, he admitted to viewing and sharing CSAM on multiple electronic devices. Following a forensic analysis of his phone and social media accounts, Sheriff’s police found hundreds of CSAM files of victims as young as infants.
On Wednesday, May 7, the Cook State’s Attorney’s Office approved charges of Dissemination of Child Pornography, a Class X felony, Possession of Child Pornography, a Class 2 felony, and Violation of Sex Offender Registration, a Class 3 felony.
Johnson appeared today at the Bridgeview Courthouse for his initial hearing where a judge ordered him held in custody at the Cook County Jail.
Since 2020, investigations by the Sheriff’s Police have led to charges against 54 people for cases involving victimization of children and child pornography. The public is reminded that defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
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