KENT COUNTY, Mich. — A West Michigan woman is facing felony charges after investigators say she brought explicit photos of a 15-year-old girl on her phone to the Kent County Jail so her ex-boyfriend could look at them during a video visitation.
42-year-old Matthew Thomas Cook has been serving time in the Kent County Correctional Facility since May 2021 on several charges related to possession of child pornography.
Investigators say it was an ex-girlfriend of Cook who is now facing two felony counts of criminal sexual conduct in the first degree. They say the ex brought the explicit images into the jail for Cook to look at, holding her phone up to the camera at a video-visit station.
An investigation was kicked off in late January because of a message allegedly sent by Cook on his jail-issued tablet.
"The tablets do just a handful of things," Kent County Sheriff Michelle LaJoye-Young told FOX 17 Friday.
"They don't have any access to the web; they go to a secured server. On that secured server, there's inmate programming, educational programs... they might be engaged in behavior-modification therapy through the tablet, or church services."
While the inmates who have the privilege of using a tablet are able to message loved ones on the outside through it, all of their communications are heavily monitored.
“There are keywords that are identified as needing to be quarantined, and then reviewed before they're sent out,” Sheriff LaJoye-Young said.
Investigators say one of Cook's messages with his ex-girlfriend was flagged after he used the word dead.
They say he was asking his ex to kill a 15-year-old girl.
As soon as the message in question was looked at, detectives were sent to the young girl's home to check on her.
“She is alive, and she's able to now get help that she needs, but obviously, she's already been through a lot,” Sheriff LaJoye-Young said.
According to court documents, Cook and this ex-girlfriend sexually assaulted the 15-year-old multiple times before he was sent to jail in 2021.
The woman would allegedly "drive her to hotels to meet Matthew Cook to have sex with him." The court documents describe the pair tying the young girl by her wrists to a bed and sexually assaulting her for long periods of time.
Investigators also say they discovered that the woman had brought explicit photos of the 15-year-old on her phone while visiting Cook at the jail via one of their video-visitation stations at the facility.
“That visitor held up a phone that had images on it,” Sheriff LaJoye-Young said.
Matthew Cook will face additional charges for his alleged conduct, while his ex has been charged with two felony counts of criminal sexual conduct in the first degree.
