Former Riverside school counselor sentenced to prison for placing hidden cameras in bathrooms

A former school counselor in Riverside was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison Wednesday for possessing child sexual abuse material, placing a hidden camera inside a school bathroom to film students, prosecutors said.

Matthew Daniel Johnson of Bryan, Texas admitted to law enforcement officials that he had hid a pen-shaped recording device in a toilet paper holder at the bathroom located across the hall from his office at La Sierra Academy, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California. Johnson, 34, has been in federal custody since October.

Prosecutors said investigators uncovered a video file that showed him adjusting a recording device in another bathroom at a junior high school bible camp, where they say he was working as a chaperone to children attending the camp. 

In March 2020, authorities carried out a search of his home which resulted in the seizure of "several videos featuring minor boys engaged in sexual activity," the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a statement announcing his sentencing, adding that some of the victims were under the age of 12 and some as young as 3 to 5 years old.

Johnson is scheduled to face a restitution hearing May 28. 

When he is released from prison, he will be placed on lifetime supervised release, prosecutors said.