Nathan A Madsen

Case report

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Madsen was an LDS church member and University of Tampa music professor in Florida.

from the US Attorney’s Office, Middle District of Florida:

“Tampa, Florida – U.S. District Judge Charlene E. Honeywell has sentenced Nathan A. Madsen (37, Tampa) to 17 years and 6 months in federal prison, followed by a life term of supervised release, for enticing a child to produce child pornography and for possessing child pornography. The Court also ordered Madsen to forfeit his vehicle and multiple electronic storage devices that had been used in the commission of the offenses. Madsen pleaded guilty on February 3, 2017. Prior to his arrest, he had worked as a music professor at the University of Tampa.

According to court documents, Madsen responded to an online advertisement for prostitution services posted on Backpage.com. Madsen requested and negotiated the price to have sex with a 14-year-old-girl. Unbeknownst to him, the message had been posted by agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations. In an attempt to verify the existence of the minor, Madsen asked for her picture, spoke to “her” on the phone, withdrew money from the ATM and drove to the designated meeting location. Madsen met with and paid an undercover special agent $140 to have sex with the minor.

After his arrest, agents executed a search warrant at Madsen’s apartment and seized multiple electronic devices. Forensic analyses of his cellphone and tablet revealed that from at least May 2015 and continuing through July 2015 Madsen engaged in a series of sexually explicit online conversations with a 16-year-old girl. During this time, he persuaded, induced, and enticed the child to produce and transmit explicit images and videos for his personal benefit. At the time of his arrest, Madsen had 61 explicit images and 14 videos of the child, some of which depicted violent, sadistic or masochistic conduct.

“Our HSI special agents, in partnership with the Tampa Police Department, have prevented this predator from harming more children,” said Ivan J. Arvelo, acting special agent in charge of HSI Tampa. “This investigation demonstrates that child exploitation continues to be a threat that can’t be ignored. Today’s sentencing sends a message that HSI is committed to the investigation and prosecution to the fullest extent of the law of individuals who engage in any heinous crime against our children.”

This case was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations and the Tampa Police Department. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Stacie B. Harris and Lisa M. Thelwell.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice/gov/psc.

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from the Tampa Bay Times:

“TAMPA — Nathan Madsen was a University of Tampa music professor when he got caught in a sting last year trying to arrange sex with a 14-year-old girl.

The girl didn’t exist. He had been fooled online by a Homeland Security agent.

But investigators soon discovered a real victim, a 16-year-old he enticed to send nude photos of herself in sex acts. And computers in his home held a collection of child pornography.

On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Charlene Edwards Honeywell ordered Madsen to serve 17 years in federal prison.

In a letter to Honeywell, the victim called Madsen “an insatiable masochist” and “an empathy-lacking pedophile.”

“Instead of empowering myself,” she wrote, “I began associating myself with words like ‘worthless,’ ‘sex toy,’ ‘slave’ and ‘property.’ ”
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Madsen, now 37, never met her in person. They chatted online and on the phone.

He reached out to her after reading a blog she maintained. He knew she had low self-esteem. He knew she had an eating disorder and mental health problems.

He told her she was special. He told her he was the only one who understood her.

He made her call him “daddy,” according to court records. He shared with her his own blog, according to court testimony, which featured images of women being sexually tortured. He persuaded her to share explicit photos of herself. In one video, she choked herself with a belt.

The girl was not in court Thursday. But Assistant U.S. Attorney Lisa Thelwell read the letter from her, in which she spoke of the lasting damage Madsen inflicted.

She never realized the way he had manipulated her, she wrote. She spoke of how she withdrew from family and friends and of the shame for the things he led her to do.

She knows the images she shared later circulated online as child pornography. Some people have tracked her down, she said, harassing her and her family.

“Your hands may never have physically touched my skin,” she told Madsen, “but I still feel just as corrupted as if they had.”

Robert Parham, a mental health counselor who specializes in treatment of sexual abusers, testified that Madsen enrolled in a treatment program shortly after his March 2016 arrest. In the nine months he spent in the program, he was “highly motivated” to identify and analyze the reasons for his sexual problems, Parham said.

Madsen acknowledged a dysfunctional upbringing, Parham said, and a childhood that was rife with abuse — physical, emotional and sexual.

Raised in Utah, Madsen came from a Mormon family, led by a mother described as “narcissistic,” Parham said. Madsen’s sister, Amanda Otis, also addressed the judge and described the home environment as abusive.
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“I believe my mother was incapable of genuine love for her children,” Otis said. “Our sole purpose was to take care of her and meet her needs.”

The kids never spoke of home problems, she said. On Sundays, they were all smiles at church.

Madsen excelled academically, carving an escape through his studies. He served a Mormon mission and went on to get married and have a son. He eventually obtained a master of fine arts degree from Bard College. He loved to lead groups of musicians. He was going for a doctorate when he arrived at the University of Tampa in 2014 as a visiting professor of music.

By his own account, though, Madsen lived a double life.

In court, he stood in an orange jail suit, trembling, his hands braced on a table as he sobbed.

“I am very glad I was arrested,” he said. “I was a very sick man and in that illness and darkness, I was a true danger to others.”

He apologized to his former colleagues and students. He apologized to his family. He apologized to girl he had victimized, though she could not hear it.

“When it came to you, I taught all the wrong lessons,” he said.

“What I did was wrong, and I must be punished for it.”

In addition to prison, the judge ordered Madsen to serve a lifetime of supervised release and to register as a sex offender.”