A former Montgomery County Deputy Sheriff has been federally indicted on charges of distribution and possession of child pornography.
As initially reported by North Penn Now, Matthew Laver, 37, of Souderton, was charged in November with nine felony counts of dissemination of a photo or film of child sex acts, as well as 30 counts of possession of child pornography and nine counts of criminal use of a communication facility, in connection with a multi-agency investigation. According to Carl Hessler Jr. at The Reporter, those charges have been dismissed by county prosecutors, so Laver can be tried by prosecutors at the federal level, where a conviction carries a more severe penalty.
The report states that the case was transferred to federal prosecutors due to Laver’s alleged crimes involving materials “that had been mailed and shipped and transported in and affecting interstate and foreign commerce.”
Laver was employed as a Montgomery County Sheriff’s Deputy roughly 10 years ago, but was no longer employed by the department at the time of his arrest, according to reports.
According to the original release in November from Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele, the investigation began when the Bucks County Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force shared information with the Montgomery County ICAC in September 2018, showing that a person in Souderton was sharing child pornography files on a file-sharing network. Montgomery County Detectives were able to directly connect to the computer through the file-sharing network, which allowed them to both download the files and trace the computer to Laver’s residence, the release states.
The release states that a search warrant for Laver’s residence was executed on Oct. 25, which allegedly lead to the discovery of more than 20 images of children in various stages of undress, “with numerous images showing the minors engaged in indecent contact with other children and adults.” According to The Reporter, the images depicted prepubescent minors under the age of 12-years-old.
Laver was arraigned by Magisterial District Judge Albert Augustine, who set bail at $100,000 cash along with the stipulation that Laver have no unsupervised contact with children and no usage of the internet. Laver was then remanded to the Montgomery County Correctional Facility after failing to post bail.
(Editor's note: All suspects and defendants are innocent until proven guilty. Should the defendant choose to issue a public statement, or is later found not guilty or has the charges dropped, we will update this article accordingly.)
See also:
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