July 21, 2014

Yucca Valley Man Who Worked at Area School Pleads Guilty to Federal Child Pornography Charges

RIVERSIDE, CA—A school custodian who sexually abused a child over a period of several years and shared visual images of the molestations online pleaded guilty today to federal child pornography charges.

Matthew Frazer, 39, of Yucca Valley, pleaded guilty today to one count of distribution of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography.

Frazer, who has been in custody since his arrest earlier this year, is scheduled to be sentenced by United States District Judge Virginia A. Phillips on October 6.

Prior to his arrest on January 31, Frazer was employed as a custodian with the Morongo Unified School District. The victim did not attend the schools where Frazer worked.

The investigation into Frazer was initiated last year after the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children provided to the FBI a series of pornographic images depicting a young female being abused by a white male. For several months, investigators attempted to identify the adult male in the images, and the FBI identified Frazier as the suspect earlier this year.

Frazer pleaded guilty to the two felony charges pursuant to a plea agreement, in which he admits filming sexual explicit images of the young female victim from 2008 through 2012. He specific admitted making a video in October 2009, when the victim was six years old, and again in 2010 when she was seven.

As a result of today’s guilty pleas, Frazer faces a mandatory minimum sentence of five years for the distribution charge and a statutory maximum sentence of 30 years in prison as a result of his guilty pleas to both counts.