Police employee sentenced in child pornography case

According to Dunklin County Prosecutor Steve Sokoloff, on Wednesday, June 24, 2009, Matthew Tillmon appeared in Circuit Court, Division I before Judge Stephen R. Sharp and was sentenced to four years in the Missouri Department of Corrections on each of 14 counts of Possession of Child Pornography. The sentences were ordered served concurrently. Tillmon had entered guilty pleas on April 22.

"The sentences imposed were the maximum for the offense at the time it was committed," Sokoloff said. "Since then, the Missouri Legislature has increased the penalty for possession of multiple images of child porn. The charge now carries a maximum penalty of 7 years, or 15 if the person has more than 20 still images or any film or motion pictures."

The charges stem from an incident that occurred on July 12, 2007, when Tillmon was employed as a dispatcher for the Campbell Police Department and numerous images of child pornography was discovered on the department computer after the end of Tillmon's shift, Sokoloff said.

Tillmon originally claimed that he was conducting an investigation about allegations of child pornography that involved children in Campbell, but later admitted that he just became curious when he was surfing the Internet and saw an address for a website that promised child sex photos, according to the prosecutor. The investigation was handled by the Campbell Police Department and investigators from the Missouri State Highway Patrol Division of Drug and Crime Control.

"I am glad that this was discovered and properly investigated." Sokoloff said. "It demonstrated good cooperation among the law enforcement agencies in our county. It is disappointing that it was a law enforcement employee that was doing this, and especially so to learn that he was using the department computer to download it."

Sokoloff singled out Officer Bradley Burge, who serves as a reserve on Campbell P.D. and as a regular officer with Malden P.D. "Brad has been a great asset here locally. He has gotten specialized training on computer crimes investigation, with assistance from the Sheriff's Department and the Dunklin County Law Enforcement Restitution Fund. This has enabled us to work on and solve serious computer related crimes without having to wait on outside agencies to do the technical work for us."