MONROE — Child porn possession charges have been filed against a Monroe man after police reported finding images of a young girl on his cellphone.
Peter Jeremiah Knutson, 41, signed a $20,000 signature bond Dec. 18 with conditions including no contact with anyone younger than 18, no use of a cellphone camera, no access to social media and no travel outside Green County without the court’s approval.
Knutson stood mute to the six Class D felony child porn possession charges, each of which carries a maximum prison sentence of 25 years. He’s also charged with felony and misdemeanor bail jumping for violating bail conditions in pending domestic abuse, drug possession and disorderly conduct cases. He has a pre-trial conference Feb. 4.
According to the criminal complaint:
Knutson’s phone was seized as evidence following a Nov. 4 fight on a downtown street in Monroe because police believed it was used to record the fight.
A Monroe police detective took the phone to the Stoughton Police Department, where an officer extracted data from the phone and put it on a flash drive. The detective got a search warrant to analyze all media on the flash drive and found nude photos of a prepubescent girl in a bedroom with low lighting.
The photos were captured by Knutson’s cellphone camera in September and October. In one image, a man’s hand appeared to be pulling down the girl’s underwear even as her legs are “clenched together.” The phone also contained “numerous images of adult male genitalia” and “self-shot images of Peter J. Knutson’s face.”