Bird Island man sentenced for possessing child porn while on probation for earlier offenses

A Bird Island man, Mathew Paul Crow, age 23, has been sentenced in Redwood County court for multiple counts of possessing child pornography while on probation for the same offense earlier.

According to court documents, on Dec. 9, 2019, Redwood Falls police officers, assisted by the Department of Corrections, located Crow in a hotel room in Redwood Falls, in possession of multiple phones with child pornographic images. Crow told law enforcement that he had been assaulted by an unknown male who had planted the phones in Crow’s room.

A day later, Crow admitted the assault claim was a lie, and the phones were his. Investigation showed a total of 111 images and 112 videos that could be classified as child pornography stored on the phones.

In court, Crow was released with conditions, and required to register as a predatory offender.

Six months later, on June 20, 2020, law enforcement raided Crow’s location again, on a report he was in violation of his probation. Investigation turned up more electronic equipment, which Crow stating a tablet computer with pornographic images on it had been left there by a friend.

Further investigation turned up surveillance video at a store that showed Crow purchasing the tablet computer.

On May 8, 2022, Crow was sentenced to 100 months in the correctional facility in St. Cloud for multiple counts of possessing pornography while resistered as a predatory offender.