Peninsula Man Charged With Child Porn Wanted To Adopt: DA

REDWOOD CITY, CA — A Peninsula man arrested at San Francisco International Airport Monday on suspicion of possessing child pornography on his personal electronic devices pleaded not guilty Friday, according to San Mateo County prosecutors.

47-year-old Matthew Emilio Coda, a current resident of Menlo Park but former resident of Half Moon Bay, told his wife that he had a prior conviction for child pornography from a state on the East Coast while they were going through a background check prior to adopting a child.

Coda said that he did not have any child pornography on his computer at that time, but agreed to let his wife and a friend with technical skills examine it - at which time they found hundreds of child pornography images that Coda had deleted.

She kicked him out of the house and turned the case over to the sheriff's office back in September. Detectives obtained a search warrant, conducted a forensic search of the computer and allegedly found more than 3,500 deleted child pornography images.

When Coda was arrested on Monday after getting off a plane, investigators searched his devices again and allegedly found 17 more images, including some that had apparently been downloaded in the last couple of weeks.

Prosecutors filed a second case against Coda for the new images found after his arrest. Bail was set at $200,000, which was posted on Tuesday, but an additional $200,000 bail was set in the second case.

Coda returns to court on Feb. 22. Defense attorney Daniel Olmos did not immediately respond to a request for comment on his client's behalf.

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Menlo Park Man Busted With Child Porn Thanks To Wife: Police

— By Bay City News Service / Image via San Mateo County Sheriff's Office