MONROE — A Monroe man charged last week with possession of meth now also faces a charge of possessing child pornography, according to the Green County Sheriff's Office.

Brian W. Bahler, 31, was arrested on the felony child porn possession charge at about 10:40 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 28. He was jailed pending court.

The case stems from an ongoing narcotics investigation initiated during a Jan. 19 traffic stop in the Town of Exeter, said Chief Deputy Tom Moczynski.

Deputies stopped Bahler for speeding and equipment violations in the W2900 block of Wisconsin 92.
A cellphone seized during the traffic stop was found to contain evidence for the child porn case, according to Moczynski. The Monroe Police Department and agents with the Stateline Area Narcotics Taskforce (SLANT) assisted in the investigation.

The traffic stop led to charges, filed two days later in Green County Circuit Court, of possessing methamphetamine as a second or subsequent offense, a felony, and possessing drug paraphernalia, a misdemeanor. Lafayette County District Attorney Jenna Gill has been appointed to the case as special prosecutor.

Bahler signed a $2,000 signature bond in the meth case and is back in court March 11 for a preliminary hearing. A criminal complaint was not immediately filed in the child porn case.

Bahler has one criminal conviction in Wisconsin, according to court records. He was sentenced in 2009 to three years on probation and ordered to undergo drug abuse treatment for a 2008 felony offense of possessing narcotic drugs in Dane County. Two counts of possessing narcotic drugs with intent to deliver and one count of possessing designer drugs with intent to deliver, all felonies, were dismissed from the case but "read in," meaning the judge could consider them at sentencing.