Arizona Man Sentenced to 12 ½ Years for Receiving Child Pornography

MADISON, WIS. – Timothy M. O’Shea, United States Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin, announced that Matthew M. Peeples, 44, of Pine, Arizona pleaded guilty and was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge William M. Conley to 12 ½ years in prison for receiving child pornography.   This term of imprisonment is to be followed by 30 years of supervised release. 

In October 2021, the father of a 16-year-old girl reported to law enforcement that in reviewing the victim’s Snapchat messages, he observed images of the family dog performing oral sex on the girl.  The father allowed police to search his phone which contained the Snapchat application associated with the girl’s account. 

The Snapchat application contained conversations between the victim and Peeples between September 23 and October 25, 2021.  Within these conversations, the victim said she was 16 years old.  The defendant lied and said he was too.  He then repeatedly asked the victim to perform sexual acts with her dog.  When she complied, he recorded the activity. 

Peeples then sent the recordings of the victim and her dog to someone else to attempt to convince them to engage in similar behavior.  He also portrayed himself as a 16-year-old boy to obtain explicit images from other minors.  By his own admission, he has been exploiting minors for approximately 10-12 years. 

Judge Conley found that a significant sentence was warranted because the defendant manipulated and coerced the victim to persuade her to engage in humiliating conduct for his own sexual gratification.  Judge Conley was also concerned that Peeples was living a double life, with people in his life having no idea of the horrific life he was living online. 

The charge against Peeples was the result of an investigation conducted by the Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and the Waunakee, Middleton, and Truckee, California Police Departments.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Altman prosecuted this case.