Inver Grove Heights Man Sentenced on Child Pornography Charges

An Inver Grove Heights man who admitted to authorities that he possessed more than 600 sexually-explicit images of children was sentenced in United States District Court on Thursday.

Matthew Charles Stuart, 35, will serve 90 days in prison and 15 years of supervised release and pay a $2,000 restitution, according to a press release issued by the United States Attorney's office.

Stuart was indicted on Dec. 16, 2009 and pleaded guilty on Feb. 8, 2010, to one count of possessing child pornography. In his plea agreement, Stuart admitted that on June 2, 2009, he possessed more than 600 images of children engaged in sexually explicit conduct. In addition, Stuart admitted downloading the images onto his home computer from the Internet, the press release said.

The case, which involved both the Inver Grove Heights Police Department
and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, was part of Project Safe Childhood, a national initiative combating the sexual exploitation of children via the Internet.

 In 2008, PSC was credited with 2,289 child-pornography indictments being filed in federal court nationwide, a 33-percent increase over 2006, according to the Minneapolis Division of the FBI.