A Cottage Grove man who posed as a 16-year-old girl online and attempted to persuade minors to send him sexually explicit pictures of themselves — including bestial acts — has been sentenced to more than 33 years in federal prison.
Peter James Monson, 38, entered a guilty plea in U.S. District Court last October to two counts of production and attempted production of child pornography, as well as one count of possession.
U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson sentenced Monson to 400 months in prison and a lifetime of supervised release. He was ordered to pay $132,000 to the victims.
According to charges, Monson engaged in a “catfishing” scheme between June 2019 and February 2021 in which he posed as a teen girl named Brianna in order to lure minor girls to create sexually explicit photos and videos of themselves for Brianna to rate. The girls were dubbed “princesses,” and in order to participate, had to follow certain rules.
Those rules included sending him nude pictures of themselves, or pictures of themselves engaging in sex acts, including bestiality and incest.
In April 2020, according to charges, Monson used his iPhone to make a secret recording of an 8-year-old while the child was getting dressed.
The investigation was conducted by the FBI’s Minneapolis and Philadelphia field offices, the Cottage Grove Police Department and the Pennsylvania State Police. It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Miranda Dugi.
The case was brought forward as part of Project Safe Childhood, an initiative of the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section of the U.S. Department of Justice, as well as the offices of the U.S. attorneys.