Man Convicted of Possessing Child Sexual Abuse Material

A federal jury convicted a Wisconsin man today for possessing images depicting the sexual abuse of children.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Joseph M. Thomas, 43, of Kenosha, saved and viewed child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on hard drives he stored in his residence from 2017 to 2021. Law enforcement uncovered Thomas’s stash of CSAM after observing that someone accessing the internet from his residence in 2021 appeared to be downloading CSAM over an online file-sharing network. The FBI then obtained a warrant to search Thomas’s residence and seized multiple hard drives and other digital devices. A forensic examination of those devices revealed that Thomas had used them to save and view CSAM and to search for similar material online. 

The jury convicted Thomas of one count of possessing child pornography. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 1, 2024, and faces a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

In 2011, Thomas was convicted of the repeated sexual assault of a young child.

Acting Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Gregory J. Haanstad for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, and Special Agent in Charge Michael E. Hensle of the FBI Milwaukee Field Office made the announcement.

The FBI investigated the case.

Trial Attorney William G. Clayman of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Megan J. Paulson for the Eastern District of Wisconsin are prosecuting the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Justice Department. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, 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 www.justice.gov/psc.