Ohio Funeral Director Sentenced to 8 Years for Child Pornography

Lorain County, Ohio

A Lorain County funeral director will spend more than eight years in prison for possession and distributing child pornography, federal law enforcement officials announced.

Matthew B. Humphrey, 38, of Vermilion , was sentenced to 98 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Solomon Oliver.

Humphrey, formerly of Dombrowski-Humphrey-Riddle Funeral Home, Lorain, was indicted in March on one count of receiving and distributing child pornography and one count of possessing child pornography. He pleaded guilty in June.

According to an affidavit used by the FBI to obtain a search warrant for Humphrey’s Vermilion home and the funeral home in Lorain, an FBI agent in San Francisco first made contact with the person later determined to be the 38-year-old Humphrey in February 2010 using a peer-to-peer computer program.

The peer-to-peer program allows users to download files from each other’s computers.

The San Francisco agent noted 3,286 images in the shared files on Humphrey’s computer and downloaded 198 images and two videos that contained graphic content of infants, toddlers and other children engaged in sexual conduct.

The agent traced the computer back to the funeral home’s Internet connection, the affidavit said.

Later that month, another FBI agent from the agency’s Buffalo office, downloaded 68 images from the same user’s computer, all of which contained child pornography, the affidavit said. The computer was again found to be connected to the Internet from the funeral home.

The San Francisco agent made contact with Humphrey, who was using a different username, again in March and discussed gaining access to his shared files on an Internet chat.

Humphrey asked if the agent was “into kids?” and the agent replied “of course.” Humphrey then asked if he had “any pics to share?” according to a transcript of the chat that was included in the affidavit.

After Humphrey allowed the agent access to his files, the agent downloaded 48 images of child pornography. The files were traced to Humphrey’s house.

Mark Riddle, the funeral home’s owner, said no one there had any idea of what Humphrey was doing and as soon as they learned about the allegations, they asked him to resign.