A 59-year-old former Madison elementary school teacher has been sentenced to 18 years in federal prison for producing child pornography after investigators say he spent months pressuring a 15-year-old Texas girl over Snapchat to send him explicit images he directed her to create. David C. Fawcett was sentenced Tuesday by U.S. District Judge William M. Conley, who ordered 20 years of supervised release to follow the prison term and directed Fawcett to pay $35,000 into victim restitution funds.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Western District of Wisconsin, Fawcett pleaded guilty to the charge on July 20, 2026. Prosecutors say that between June and August 2025, he communicated with the girl, identified in court documents only as Minor A, and regularly asked her to send him explicit images, telling her specifically what the images should depict. The Justice Department's account says he asked her to create explicit images.
The case first came to light, according to the Wisconsin Radio Network, when Madison police became aware in January that the Texas teen was exchanging messages with Fawcett over Snapchat and found that she was producing explicit images at his request. A second count alleging similar conduct was dismissed as part of Fawcett's plea agreement, and the outlet reports that state charges against him were dismissed earlier this year after he was indicted in federal court.
Destroyed Devices Could Not Erase the Case
A search warrant was executed at Fawcett's home. When the Madison Police Department SWAT team searched the home, Fawcett placed a tablet and a cell phone in the microwave, destroying them, the Justice Department says.
Fawcett was sentenced above the mandatory minimum. He previously taught at Nuestro Mundo Elementary in Madison, per the same Wisconsin Radio Network account.
A Multi-Agency Investigation Spanning Two States
The case was built through a joint investigation by the Madison Police Department, the FBI, and the Collin County Sheriff's Office Child Crimes Task Force in Texas, the Justice Department said. The Collin County Sheriff's Office Child Crimes Task Force in Texas was among the agencies involved in the investigation, the Justice Department said. Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Altman prosecuted the case.
Part of a Surging National Problem
Fawcett's case lands amid a sharp nationwide rise in reports of online child exploitation. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children says its CyberTipline identified and escalated more than 53,000 reports in 2025 as urgent or involving a child in imminent danger, according to NCMEC's CyberTipline data. The organization reported receiving 1.4 million online enticement reports that year, including more than 800 involving an offender traveling to meet a child and more than 80,000 sextortion reports.
NCMEC's data also show reports of child sex trafficking to the CyberTipline increased 323 percent from 2024 to 2025, while financial sextortion reports averaged 137 per day, a 37 percent jump over the prior year. The center additionally logged more than 3,000 reports of sadistic online exploitation, a rise of more than 125 percent, and more than 400,000 reports with a generative-artificial-intelligence nexus, including over 182,000 involving offenders possessing, generating, or attempting to generate AI-produced child sexual abuse material.
