Middleton Man Sentenced to 10 Years for Possessing Child Pornography

MADISON, WIS. - Chadwick M. Elgersma, Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin, announced that Scott Chier, 63, Middleton, Wisconsin, was sentenced yesterday by Chief U.S. District Judge James D. Peterson to 10 years in federal prison for possessing child pornography. The prison term will be followed by 15 years of supervised release. Chier was also ordered to pay $45,000 in restitution to the victims of his crime. Chier pleaded guilty to the offense on April 30, 2025.

After receiving information about an IP address associated with Chier distributing child pornography, law enforcement executed a search warrant at Chier's residence in Middleton on July 27, 2022. Images of child pornography were located on electronic devices owned by Chier. Chier was indicted by a federal grand jury on August 3, 2022, but resolution of his case was delayed pending resolution of a legal issue by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.

At sentencing, Judge Peterson found that Chier's conduct was very serious due to the nature of the images that Chier possessed, Chier's distribution of the images, and Chier's prior conviction for similar conduct. Judge Peterson explained that he was imposing the sentence to protect the public and deter Chier from further criminal conduct.

The charge against Chier was the result of an investigation conducted by the Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation and the Waukesha, Hartford, and Middleton Police Departments. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Julie Pfluger and Elizabeth Altman prosecuted this case.

This investigation was a part of Project Safe Childhood (PSC), a nationwide initiative to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse. 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.