FRESNO - A federal grand jury returned a three-count indictment today against Scott Matthew Trischler, 24, of Ft. Wayne, Indiana, charging him with one count of sexual exploitation of a minor, one count of enticement of a minor, and one count of receipt of child pornography, U.S. Attorney McGregor W. Scott announced.
According to a criminal complaint, Trischler developed a relationship with a minor in Madera County while playing an online game with her. Trischler then communicated with the minor through Kik Messenger, Skype, TextNow, and Google Hangouts. He convinced her to create and transmit to him images of herself engaging in sexually explicit conduct from approximately December 2017 through March 2018.
Trischler was arrested in Ft. Wayne, Indiana on February 5, 2019, and he has been ordered detained at least through his next court appearance there on March 5, 2019. This case is the product of an investigation by the Fresno, California and Ft. Wayne, Indiana offices of the Federal Bureau of Investigation as well as the Madera County Sheriff’s Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney David Gappa is prosecuting the case.
If convicted, Trischler faces the following possible penalties: a mandatory minimum term of 15 years and a maximum of 30 years in prison for the sexual exploitation count; a mandatory minimum of 10 years to a maximum of life in prison for the enticement count; and a potential five to 20 years in prison for the one count of receipt of child pornography.
For all counts there is a potential $250,000 fine and a lifetime term of supervised release. Any sentence, however, would be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables. The charges are only allegations; the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute those who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims.
