Former Riverside school counselor gets 30 years for producing child porn

A former private school counselor in Riverside County was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for possessing child pornography and hiding a camera in bathrooms used by children.

Matthew Daniel Johnson, a 34-year-old Texas resident, was discovered to possess “several videos featuring minor boys engaged in sexual activity” when investigators raided his home in 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a news release.

“The videos depicted victims under the age of 12 and some as young as 3 to 5 years old,” officials added.

Early reports indicated Johnson possessed more than 600 pieces of child sex abuse material, some of which involved “sadism.”

Johnson told law enforcement officials that “he had hidden a pen-shaped recording device in a toilet paper holder inside of a school bathroom, across the hall from his office as a school counselor at La Sierra Academy in Riverside.”

The academy, a Seventh-day Adventist K-12 school, “immediately” fired Johnson upon learning of the crimes, Principal Elizabeth Munoz Beard said at the time.

“We are shocked, horrified, and saddened by what this investigation has already revealed,” Beard said in a statement. “My heart is broken. We love the children and their families that we serve. Their safety and well-being is our highest priority.”

Outside of his surreptitious recording at the school, Johnson also recorded videos at a Bible camp for junior high school students where he was serving as a chaperone.

“Johnson further admitted to using and employing a minor victim in January 2020 for the purpose of creating a visual depiction of the victim engaging in sexual conduct,” the release said.

Johnson has a restitution hearing scheduled for May 28 and will be placed on lifetime parole after he’s released from prison.