The Attorney General’s Office on Friday charged a Polson Police Department officer with a felony count of sexual abuse of children after he was arrested earlier this month, Attorney General Austin Knudsen announced today.
Polson County Sheriff’s Office deputies on Sept. 13 arrested 42-year-old Matthew Timm for allegedly photographing and filming an underage girl between January 2017 and March 2023.
According to charging documents filed in Lake County District Court, the victim told Lake County detectives that Timm began touching her inappropriately when she was 12 or 13 years old, which continued through her high school years. She also indicated she caught Timm filming her on numerous occasions when he secretly placed recording devices in her bathroom.
The alleged abuse was reported to the Polson Police Department on Sept. 7, 2023 after two people found a flash drive located in the home of the victim. When one of the individuals plugged the flash drive into a computer, they found numerous videos of the victim naked or partially clothed.
After obtaining a search warrant, agents with the Montana Department of Criminal Investigations found more than 700 images of the victim, which were saved in 2018, records state.
Polson Police Department officers said earlier this month that they will continue to work with partnering law enforcement agencies and an internal employment investigation is ongoing.
Timm faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in the Montana State Prison and a fine of $10,000.