Black Hawk Man Sentenced to Federal Prison for Child Pornography

RAPID CITY - United States Attorney Alison J. Ramsdell announced today that U.S. District Judge Karen E. Schreier has sentenced a Black Hawk, South Dakota, man convicted of Receipt of Child Pornography. The sentencing took place on July 11, 2025.

Matthew Charles Ratliff, 51, was sentenced to five years and three months in federal prison, followed by five years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $20,000 in restitution to online victims. He was further ordered to pay a $100 special assessment to the Federal Crime Victims Fund. Ratliff will be required to register as a sex offender under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act.

Ratliff was indicted for Receipt of Child Pornography and Possession of Child Pornography by a federal grand jury in May 2023. He pleaded guilty on April 7, 2025.

The case was reported through a Cybertip, which informed law enforcement the defendant was downloading and viewing images of young children being sexually abused. Searches of Ratliff’s various devices revealed around 280 images of child sexual abuse material. At sentencing, Judge Schreier discussed how each time an image of a child being sexually abused is viewed, that child is re-victimized. Some of the children in the images have been identified, and Ratliff was ordered to pay restitution to each of them.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the DOJ’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children, as well as identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit https://www.justice.gov/psc.

This case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations, the South Dakota Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, the Pennington County Sheriff’s Office, and the Rapid City Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Anna Lindrooth prosecuted the case.

Ratliff was immediately remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.