An Indiana man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to possession of child pornography. Todd Schannen Pearson, 55, from Indianapolis, will also face a lifetime of supervised release following his sentence. The case was presided over by U.S. District Judge Dana L. Christensen, who ordered Pearson to pay $42,000 in restitution.

The investigation began when Verizon reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) that a user had uploaded files depicting a prepubescent minor engaged in explicit conduct. The Bozeman Police Department identified Pearson as the account owner and discovered additional images on his Verizon cloud storage. In September 2021, police seized Pearson's cell phone in Bozeman, revealing over 10,000 images and 84 videos of minors involved in sexually explicit activities.

The case was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office with assistance from the Bozeman Police Department, Montana Division of Criminal Investigation, and Montana Sexual and Violent Offender Registry.

This prosecution is part of Project Safe Childhood, an initiative launched by the Department of Justice in May 2006 to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse.