Source: Office of United States Attorneys
SIOUX FALLS – United States Attorney Alison J. Ramsdell announced today that U.S. District Judge Karen E. Schreier has sentenced a Sioux Falls, South Dakota, man convicted of Possession of Child Pornography. The sentencing took place on March 4, 2024.
Matthew Richard Hainje, age 45, was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison, followed by10 years of supervised release, and a special assessment to the Federal Crime Victims Fund in the amount of $100.
Hainje was indicted by a federal grand jury in March of 2023. He pleaded guilty on November 30, 2023.
The conviction stemmed from incidents December 20, 2022, and February 13, 2023, when Hainje possessed thousands of digital files which contained photos and video recordings of child pornography. Hainje used his cellular phone to access the digital files of child pornography on the internet and saved them to his Google and Dropbox accounts.
This case was investigated by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Homeland Security Investigations, and the Sioux Falls Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey C. Clapper prosecuted the case.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the DOJ’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children, as well as identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit https://www.justice.gov/psc.
Hainje was immediately remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.