A U-S District Court Judge in Council Bluffs, Thursday, sentenced a western Iowa man to a little more than 5 1/4 years in prison for possessing child pornography. 32-year old Matthew P. Goodside, of Shelby,  was also ordered to serve ten years of supervised release following his imprisonment and comply with Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act requirements.

Federal and state authorities began investigating Goodside in July of 2014 with regard to the suspected distribution of synthetic marijuana from his residence in Avoca. During a search warrant that was conducted at the Avoca residence in January of 2015, several laptops and pieces of computer equipment were recovered. A later forensic examination of the computers revealed the presence of several images and videos reflecting child pornography that had been downloaded using a peer-to-peer file sharing program.

The matter was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the United States Postal Inspection Service, the Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office, the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, the Avoca Police Department, and the Southwest Iowa Narcotics Taskforce. The case was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa.