A 22-year-old Madison man appeared in court Tuesday after being charged with 21 counts of possessing child pornography.
The defendant, Michael J. Anderson, was arrested after Wisconsin Department of Justice agents executed a search warrant of Anderson's parents' house located at the 100 block of Lynnhaven Road, according to the criminal complaint.
When Special Agent Jesse Crowe showed up at the house to execute the warrant, Anderson said he had ""nothing to hide"" and showed Crowe where his ""stuff"" was at, according to authorities.
The defendant told Crowe his laptop was password protected and believed no one else used the laptop except for him.
Anderson allegedly used the terms ""jailbait,"" ""Lolita"" and ""pedo"" in the search engine when he was looking for 16- to 18-year-old girls. According to authorities, one-third of the images Anderson downloaded involved people under the age of 18.
Anderson allegedly told Crowe hedownloaded child pornography even though he knew it was illegal to possess. The defendant told Crowe adult pornography ""can get kind of mundane, it's not any special thrill,"" the criminal complaint stated.
Investigators retrieved the defendant's laptop and recovered numerous contraband files from the hard drive, according to authorities.
""Crowe reports that he observed some of the forensic preview of the hard drive and observed file names consistent with child pornography,"" the complaint stated.
Anderson was released on a signature bond and is set to return to court next month for a status hearing.
Anderson faces up to 25 years in prison on each felony charge.
—Maggie DeGroot
