Private School Counselor Hid Cameras in Toilet Paper Receptacles, Produced Child Pornography
Matthew Daniel Johnson has pleaded guilty to producing and possessing child pornography after admitting to recording inside a bathroom stall at La Sierra Academy in Riverside, Calif. Photo credit: Fontana Police Department.
Johnson worked as a counselor at a La Sierra Academy in Riverside County, where some of the images were captured by a camera hidden in a student bathroom, according to a public statement by the Justice Department.
Johnson could serve between 15 and 50 years in prison. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for Feb. 5, 2025, according to court documents reviewed by The Daily Muck.
Along with the criminal case, three families of Johnson’s alleged victims have filed civil complaints against him. The families have also filed lawsuits against the Southeastern California Conference of Seventh-Day Adventists, the North American Division of Seventh-Day Adventists Office of Education and La Sierra Academy, where Johnson worked.
Johnson Hid Cameras in Bathroom at Private School
When members of law enforcement searched his home in March 2020, they found and seized multiple videos featuring children engaging in sexual activity, with some of the victims being as young as three years old. None of the victims were over the age of 12.
During the search, Johnson admitted that he had a pen-shaped recording device hidden in a toilet paper holder inside of a school bathroom located across the hall from his office at La Sierra Academy in Riverside.
During the search of his office, police found an external hard drive with over 100 video files of 62 minors created by Johnson using that hidden device. Another video showed Johnson adjusting a recording device at a Junior High School Bible Camp, where he was working as a chaperone. The video file subsequently captured minor boys using the toilet and the shower.
Johnson’s Terrible Behavior Not Restricted to Filming
In addition to copping to the secret cameras, Johnson also admitted that in January 2020, he solicited a minor victim o create a visual depiction of the victim engaging in sexual conduct.
Although he was arrested after these findings, Johnson was, according to a local television station from Texas called KBTX, released on bail back in 2021 on bail. However, due to an oversight related to coronavirus pandemic, the state declined to file charges, and Lindberg moved from California to Texas. The same news station stated that on March 4, 2020, when the authorities showed up at his Texas doorstep with a search warrant, Johnson had admitted that he’d been viewing child pornography since his early teen years, starting at 14.
According to the LA Times, Johnson, who has a wife and a daughter, said that he moved to Texas to avoid widespread news coverage of this case but also because his wife got a job at Texas A&M University.
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