A former school counselor from Riverside, California, will spend the next 30 years in federal prison after admitting to placing hidden cameras in a school bathroom and possessing child sexual abuse material, prosecutors announced Wednesday.
Matthew Daniel Johnson, 34, of Bryan, Texas, confessed to hiding a pen-shaped recording device inside a toilet paper holder in a bathroom located across from his office at La Sierra Academy, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California.
Johnson has been in federal custody since October, and investigators uncovered disturbing evidence far beyond the school's wall, police said per local news.
"A video file showed him adjusting a recording device in another bathroom at a junior high school Bible camp," prosecutors stated and noted Johnson was working as a chaperone at the time.
The case reached a turning point back in March 2020 when authorities searched Johnson's home.
"Several videos featuring minor boys engaged in sexual activity" were seized, the U.S. Attorney's Office reported. Some victims were reportedly as young as 3 to 5 years old.
Johnson's sentencing brings partial closure to a case that shattered trust within the community.
He is scheduled for a restitution hearing on May 28, where the court will determine financial compensation for victims. Upon release, he will be placed on lifetime supervised release, prosecutors confirmed.
