Florence man sentenced to 30 years in prison for producing and receiving images and videos of child pornography

MISSOULA - A Florence man who produced child pornography was sentenced today to 360 months in prison to be followed by a lifetime of supervised release, Acting U.S. Attorney Tim Racicot said.

Matthew Ray Tack, 41, pleaded guilty in December 2025 to two counts of production of child pornography, two counts of transfer of obscene material to minors, and one count of receipt of child pornography.

U.S. District Judge Donald W. Molloy presided.

The government alleged in court documents that on March 14, 2024, law enforcement executed a search warrant at Matthew Tack's residence in Florence and seized several phones and a laptop. Law enforcement searched the laptop and found three videos and 20 pictures which depicted minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. Some of the images and videos had creation dates ranging from December 5, 2023, to May 8, 2024, indicating they were received on the laptop on those dates. Several of the file paths indicated that at least some of the images were shared via applications like WhatsApp and Telegram.

Additionally, forensic analysis of the laptop revealed Tack had engaged in chats with minors on an online chat application, largely between 2021 and 2022. The chats included Tack's solicitation from multiple minors of images and videos that depicted the minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

Tack consistently urged the minors with whom he was talking to send him sexually explicit images and videos. For example, in a 2021 chat with a minor who indicated they were just entering the 10th grade, Tack told the minor that he wanted "lewd pics" of the child and that "I had hopes that later I could get you to send some." Tack told the child his sexual interest in her was due (at least in part) to her age, saying "… young and hot, definitely my weakness."

Beginning on April 20, 2021, and continuing through October 9, 2021, Tack engaged in similar chats on the application with Jane Doe 1. At the time of these chats, Jane Doe 1 was 13 years old. Tack began their chat by immediately asking Jane Doe 1 for a picture. He then sent several shirtless photos of himself and asked Jane Doe 1 "Could you take some?" In total during this conversation, Tack sent Jane Doe 1 two pictures of his penis and Jane Doe 1 sent Tack three images of herself engaged in sexually explicit conduct, at Tack's behest.

Law enforcement located Jane Doe 1 and interviewed her. She confirmed she likely sent the above-described images to Tack and identified herself in some the pictures law enforcement recovered from the records of the conversation described above.

Beginning on September 16, 2021, and continuing through February 19, 2022, Tack also engaged in similar chats on the application with Jane Doe 2. At the time of these chats, Jane Doe 2 was 13 years old. During the conversations, Tack exhorted Jane Doe 2 to send him images of herself engaged in sexually explicit conduct. Tack reassured Jane Doe 2 he would not show the images to anyone because of how "bad" the age difference between them was, and that "…we should not be doing this but we are… I could go to prison."

Law enforcement located Jane Doe 2 and interviewed her. She identified Tack by picture and confirmed she sent Tack the images of herself engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Lowney prosecuted the case. The FBI, State of Montana Division of Criminal Investigation, Glasgow Police Department, and Western Australia Police Force conducted the investigation.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys' Offices and CEOS, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit Justice.gov/PSC.

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