School Custodian Pleads Guilty to Sexually Abusing Child

An Inland Empire man who photographed and videotaped himself sexually abusing a child pleaded guilty Monday to federal charges.

Matthew Frazer, 39, of Yucca Valley admitted one count each of distributing child pornography and possessing child porn during a status hearing before U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips.

Phillips scheduled a sentencing hearing for Oct. 6. Under the terms of his plea agreement, Frazer is facing 10 to 23 years in federal prison, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

The defendant was arrested Jan. 31 following an investigation by the FBI, the Riverside and San Bernardino police departments and the sheriff's departments of Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

Frazer worked as a custodian for the Morongo Unified School District, but the victim was not a student at any of the schools to which he was assigned, said U.S. Attorney's Office spokesman Thom Mrozek.

He said the acts of child molestation came to the attention last year of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which obtained "pornographic images depicting a young female being abused by a white male."

The material was turned over to the FBI, which spent several months attempting to identify the man in the pictures, ultimately succeeding, according to Mrozek.

He said the investigation revealed the child, whose identity remained undisclosed, was molested between 2008 and 2012. The charges to which Frazer pleaded dealt specifically with an October 2009 videotape made when the girl was 6 years old and another in 2010 when she was 7.

The child's relationship to Frazer, if any, was not disclosed.

— By Bay City News Service.