Teenager pleads guilty to child porn charge

A Grafton teenager who was arrested last year after being accused of posting pornographic images to an online chat room in response to an undercover FBI agent’s question, “Anyone got infant,” pleaded guilty in Ozaukee County Circuit Court this week to possessing child pornography.

During a Tuesday, June 17, hearing, Assistant District Attorney Benjamin Lindsay recommended Joseph D. Valentino, who is now 19 but was 17 when arrested, be sentenced to one year in prison followed by two years of extended supervision.

Valentino is scheduled to be sentenced by Ozaukee County Circuit Judge Paul Malloy on Aug. 1.

The case dates to spring 2021 when the Grafton Police Department received a tip from the FBI Child Exploitation Task Force about images and videos uploaded to a social media platform called KIK.

About 52 images and videos, the majority of which depicted sexually explicit conduct involving boys and girls between infancy and early puberty, were uploaded to the site from an account with the user name ITSSERENITYTIME, according to the criminal complaint.

Authorities traced that account to a Charter Communications IP address listed to Valentino’s mother.

On April 13, 2021, state and local authorities searched Valentino’s home and questioned him.

Valentino admitted to using KIK under the name ITSERENTTYTIME and told authorities he had been banned from the site for sending and receiving pornographic images of children. He said he then switched to the Wicker website, which has chatrooms used for distributing child pornography, the complaint states.

Valentino admitted to looking at images of children between the ages of 4 and 5 and turned over a phone that contained pictures of infants and toddlers engaged in sexually explicit conduct, according to the complaint.

Valentino, who had been free in lieu of $7,500 bail, was remanded into custody after pleading guilty this week.