Garland man sentenced to almost 20 years in prison for child pornography

GARLAND, Neb. -- A man from Garland was sentenced to almost 20 years in prison for a child pornography charge.

U.S. Attorney Steven Russell said 36-year-old Matthew French, of Garland, was sentenced in Lincoln on March 24. He was charged for two counts of producing child pornography. French will serve 225 months in prison along with 12 years of supervised release after. There is no parole in the federal system. After serving his prison sentence, French will be required to register as a sex offender.

According to court documents, the case started when a school intercepted an email meant for one of its minor students that had sexually explicit language and requested sexual-related information and photos from the minor. The investigation started in order to figure out the identity of the person who sent the email. Through investigation, French was identified as the sender.

Officials said they found out that French would meet minors through his small business, introduction from other minors, or through Snapchat. He would start a conversation with the minors and eventually would explain an opportunity for them to make money through “odd easy work.” He would then give the minor the email address for a fictional individual. French told his victims that this fictional person wrote sex stories online and that they wanted the minor’s information to write these stories.

Authorities said French would pose as the third person with the emails and send the minor victims a survey with detailed questions about their sexual activities, proclivities, and anatomy. The email said the third person would pay the minor for filling out the survey. The email also had options to make more money by taking certain sexually related pictures.

According to court documents, officials got a search warrant for the email address, related-Google drive, Google photos accounts, and for French’s home and devices. Investigators found several sexually explicit files and were able to positively identify four minor victims who sent sexually explicit images or videos to French at his request and who were paid by French.

This case was investigated by the Seward County Sheriff’s Office.