Cottage Grove man sentenced to 33 years in prison, lifetime of supervised release for child porn charges
A 38-year-old Cottage Grove man has been sentenced to serve the next three decades of his life behind bars after being convicted of multiple charges related to child pornography.
The United States District Attorney’s Office says Peter Monson has been sentenced to over 33 years (400 months) in prison, a lifetime of supervised release and will also pay $132,000 to funds supporting the victims.
As previously reported, Monson pleaded guilty to two counts of production and attempted production of child pornography, as well as one count of possession of child pornography in October.
Documents state Monson catfished victims between June 2019 and February 2021, taking on fake personas to communicate with children online, as well as Snapchat.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office says Monson made a fake Snapchat profile of a teenage girl, and then asked minor girls to make explicit photos and videos to send to Monson so they could be rated by others. Monson used the fake profile to tell the girls to follow certain rules, which included creating and sending photos and videos of the girls, who officials say were naked or participating in sexual acts.
Court officials say Monson also used his phone to secretly record an 8-year-old girl while she got dressed in April of 2020.
The FBI Field Offices in Minneapolis and Philadelphia were part of the investigation, as well as the Cottage Grove Police Department and the Pennsylvania State Police.
Anyone who knows of a possible exploitation victim is asked to call the National Center for Missing or Exploited Children at 1-800-843-5678.