Tim Ryan, tryan@wolfrivermedia.com
A former Menominee chief justice and tribal prosecutor was sentenced in federal court Friday to five years in prison for receiving child pornography.
Joseph H. Martin, 54, pleaded guilty in February under a plea agreement in U.S. District Court in Green Bay.
According to court records, child porn in Martin’s possession included a 23-minute video showing a prepubescent female performing a sexual act.
Authorities launched an investigation in January 2014 after an area IP address was found to be using a peer-to-peer file-sharing network known to traffic in child pornography, according to court documents.
Over the next several months, undercover officers downloaded numerous files being shared by the address, including videos that featured minors identified by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
The address was traced to Martin at his home address in Keshena, according to court records. Authorities executed a search warrant at his residence Oct. 14, seizing three laptops, five thumb drives and one tablet containing about 100 child pornography videos, the records state.
According to a sentencing memorandum submitted by the defense, Martin admitted to authorities that child pornography would be found on his computer when they executed their search warrant.
Martin said he was interested in girls in their upper teens as opposed to younger children.
A psychological evaluation indicated Martin’s likelihood of re-offending was low, according to the defense memorandum.
The doctor’s report suggests Martin’s exposure to adult pornography “deteriorated into the exposure of child pornography use,” court documents state.
The defense memorandum also notes that Martin could come in contact with individuals he had previously sentenced, raising concern for his safety. The defense agreed with the recommended five-year prison sentence, but requested that Martin surrender himself rather than being transported through the federal Bureau of Prisons out of concern for his safety.
Martin was ordered to surrender himself within 72 hours to the Federal Correctional Institution in Elkton, Ohio — a low-security prison that houses about 2,400 inmates.
Martin was charged in November with two counts of transporting child pornography. One count was dropped as part of the plea agreement.
Martin could have faced a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, and supervised release of anywhere from five years to life.
The five-year sentence is the minimum under the law. Martin will also have to register as a sex offender.
Martin served as chief justice for the Menominee Tribe in the early 2000s and later as tribal prosecutor.
He also served as chief legislative counsel for the Little River Band of the Ottawa Indians in Michigan before becoming Menominee tribal prosecutor.
According to information in the search warrant request, Martin was employed by the Wisconsin Department of Corrections at the time the warrant was executed.