Repeat Sex Offender From Sun Prairie Sentenced To 18 Years For Producing Child Pornography

MADISON, WIS. – Timothy M. O’Shea, United States Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin, announced that Robert D. Sutton, Jr., 52, Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge William M. Conley to 18 years in prison for producing child pornography. This term of imprisonment is to be followed by a lifetime period of supervised release. Sutton pleaded guilty to this charge on October 3, 2023.

In May 2021, law enforcement received information that Sutton was sexually assaulting Minor A, then age 13, and Minor B, then age 15.  As part of the investigation, law enforcement executed a search warrant on Sutton’s phone and found numerous close-up images of him assaulting the minors. 

Sutton was convicted of assaulting a different minor in 2007, and as a result, he was required to register as a sex offender. He was in violation of that requirement at the time he assaulted Minors A and B in the federal case.

Judge Conley stated that Sutton was calculating and manipulative, and that the most disturbing part of the case was Sutton’s willingness and ability to manipulate both adults and children in order to use the children for sexual gratification. Judge Conley was also troubled that Sutton did not seem to recognize the lifelong injury to his victims due to his actions. 

The charge against Sutton was the result of an investigation conducted by the Sun Prairie Police Department and the Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation, with assistance from the Dane County District Attorney’s Office. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Anita Boor and Elizabeth Altman prosecuted this case. 

This investigation was a part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse. Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.