Florence man sentenced to 30 years in prison for sexting children

A Florence man was sentenced Friday morning to 30 years in prison on five child pornography charges related to sending and receiving explicit texts and images on online chat platforms with minors.

Matthew Tack appeared before U.S. District Court Judge Donald Molloy in Missoula's federal courthouse.

In December 2025, Tack pleaded guilty to two counts of production of child pornography, two counts of transfer of obscene material to minors and one count of receipt of child pornography, according to court documents. As part of his plea agreement, prosecutors dropped two separate charges that would add penalties to the other charges based on Tack already being a registered sex offender.

According to an offer of proof filed by the state, on May 14, 2024, law enforcement searched Tack's home in Florence and seized several phones and his laptop. On the laptop, they found three videos and 20 pictures that constituted child sexual exploitation material.

The search also found that Tack chatted with minors on an online chat application, mostly between 2021 and 2022. During these chats, documents state, Tack solicited child sexual exploitation material from multiple minors, receiving images and videos of them engaged in sexual conduct.

Tack's attorney, Shandor Badaruddin, requested that Tack receive the mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years in prison. He cited Tack's psychosexual evaluation, which indicated a low to moderate risk of reoffending.

"He's accepted his responsibility for these offenses," Badaruddin said. "He's demonstrated a willingness to discuss these behaviors."

Tack declined to address the court, which Molloy commented on.

"It's a little surprising that Mr. Tack had nothing to say, but that won't be held against him," Molloy said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Lowney brought up Tack's prior criminal history in the state of Montana. Tack pleaded guilty in 2014 to one count of sexual abuse of children in Missoula County District Court.

"What Mr. Tack was doing in that prior case was the exact same thing he was doing here," Lowney said.

According to court documents, in 2013, one of Tack's neighbors reported she'd found child sexual exploitation material on a computer Tack had lent her. Officers found many sexually explicit images of a 13-year-old girl, who told a detective she had been exchanging sexual texts with Tack on online messaging apps.

Tack was sentenced to five years in prison in August 2014, with five years suspended, meaning he was on probation conditions at the time of the federal crimes, including a ban on any contact with any minor.

He also had to complete a sex offender treatment program. According to Lowney, he didn't complete that program, instead timing out of it. Lowney said this indicated the court couldn't trust that Tack wouldn't reoffend, and a guideline sentence between 30 and 50 years was appropriate.

Molloy said that his sentence was aimed at specifically deterring Tack from reoffending, rather than deterring sex offenses generally.

"Whatever sentences are imposed in these kinds of cases seems to serve no general deterrence for people like Mr. Tack," Molloy said.

In addition to 30 years in prison, Molloy imposed a lifetime of supervised release, meaning Tack will have to adhere to probation conditions for the rest of his life. Molloy said he would recommend Tack serve his sentence in his requested facility in Colorado and would recommend he be placed in an alcohol treatment program.