FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, July 28, 2021

Defendant Allegedly Targeted Victims

            WASHINGTON – Glenn Matthews, 32, of Washington, D.C., has been detained pending trial following the filing of charges of attempted production of child pornography, attempted enticement, enticement of a minor, and sending obscene material to minors.

            The charges, contained in a criminal complaint that was unsealed last week, were announced today by Acting U.S. Attorney Channing D. Phillips, Robert Bornstein, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Washington Field Office Criminal Division, and Robert J. Contee III, Chief of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).

            Matthews was arrested on July 22, 2021, after he was charged in the complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The complaint alleges that, between July 2020 and November 2020, Matthews utilized the Instagram account SOUTHSIDEAREA to send ten different minors graphic images of himself and/or videos of himself masturbating.  The complaint alleges that Matthews also tried to meet at least two of these children for sex, one of whom he suggested meeting at the Anacostia Metro Station.  According to the complaint, Matthews also solicited explicit images of at least one purported minor and took a screenshot of an explicit image of another purported minor. The complaint alleges that he threatened to share the screenshot with others if the purported minor did not comply with his demands.

            At a hearing on July 26, 2021, the Honorable Magistrate Judge G. Michael Harvey detained Matthews pending trial.  A preliminary hearing has been scheduled for Aug. 20.

            The charges in criminal complaints are merely allegations and every defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

            This case is being investigated by the Metropolitan Police Department and the FBI Washington Field Office's Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force, composed of FBI agents and local, state, and federal partners. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney April Nicole Russo, with assistance from Paralegal Specialist Alexis Spencer-Anderson.

            People with information about these or other child exploitation crimes are encouraged to call the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI or submit a tip online at tips.fbi.gov.