Madison, Wisconsin: "Today's sentence sends an unambiguous message that we will track down and hold accountable those who distribute child sexual abuse material," Acting U.S. Attorney Timothy M. O'Shea stated. "Every time an image of child sexual abuse is shared, it re-victimizes that child. No one is above the law and I am grateful to our law enforcement partners who helped ensure that the defendant would be held accountable for his crimes."
On Wednesday, December 22, former Milwaukee County Children's Court Judge Brett Blomme, 39, was sentenced to 9 years in prison followed by an additional 20 years of supervised release for distributing child pornography.
He pleaded guilty to two counts of distributing child pornography on September 28 as a part of a plea deal that saw state level charges against him dropped.
The investigation into Blomme's activities began when the Wisconsin Department of Justice's Division of Criminal Investigation received a tip on January 28, 2021 from the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children.
According to that tip, a username on Kik, "DomMasterBB," had been identified as distributing "images and videos consistent with child pornography" between October and November 2020 on 27 different instances.
During the course of investigation, a gmail account containing the first and last name of Blomme was identified as being tied to the account, and the IP addresses used to access the account were tied to not only Blomme's home in Cottage Grove, Wisconsin, but also the Milwaukee County Children's Court Center.
"When DCI agents executed a search warrant at Blomme's residence, they found electronic devices that contained numerous text messages between Blomme and other individuals that centered on Blomme's sexual interest in children."
A memorandum filed by his defense at sentencing indicated that "Brett fully accepts responsibility for his crimes. He has begun the process of surrendering his law license based on his convictions. He wants the serious help he needs, for his porn addition (with its underlying root causes) and for his alcohol abuse," before continuing on to argue in favor of the minimum sentence possible of five years.
Blomme is father to two adopted children.