Former Louisville Area Teacher And Athletics Coach Sentenced To 72 Months In Prison For Violations Of Child Exploitation Laws

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – A Louisville man formerly employed by Kentucky Country Day of Louisville as a physical education teacher and assistant coach with the school’s athletics department was sentenced this week, in United States District Court, by Senior Judge Thomas B. Russell, to 72 months in prison and 20 years of supervised release, for violating child exploitation laws, announced United States Russell M. Coleman.

Matthew Graves, age 40, pleaded guilty to two counts of a federal indictment on September 8, 2017. According to the plea agreement, between the dates of December 8 and 9, of 2014, Graves, while in Kentucky, knowingly used KIK (a social media messaging application) to transport and receive images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct with another KIK user in Maryland.

 At the time of sentencing, the United States moved for dismissal of Counts one and Counts two of the Indictment, and agreed that a sentence of 72 months was appropriate.

Graves was arrested by federal authorities on March 21, 2016, and has remained in in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney A. Spencer McKiness and was investigated by the FBI and LMPD.

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This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals, who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab "resources."