Jury finds Hobart man guilty of molesting friend’s daughter | State | #childpredator | #kidsaftey | #childsaftey

When police spoke to the 4-year-old in September 2019, she told them that she was scared of her “Uncle Matt” getting in trouble, the probable cause affidavit stated. Setlak was not related to the girl, but was a close friend of her family.

The girl would occasionally stay at Setlak’s house when he babysat her, charges stated. Charges also allege that Setlak would often show the girl pornographic videos.

Police wrote in charging documents that when they searched Setlak’s phone, they found a great deal of pornographic pictures and images.

Detective Ernest Nangle testified on Tuesday that when he reviewed the contents of Setlak’s phone, he found many pornographic images depicting seemingly young women.

When Setlak testified on Wednesday in Judge Samuel Cappas’s courtroom, he admitted that he viewed pornography on his phone. But he said that many of the pictures of women on his phone were from dating profiles.

Setlak’s attorney Joseph Roberts said during his closing arguments that Setlak likely had the pictures of women from dating apps on his phone so that he could reverse-image search the pictures to avoid being catfished.

Setlak’s ex-girlfriend testified on Tuesday that while the two were dating, she once found a young girl’s pair of underwear in Setlak’s bed.

Setlak said on the stand that he would often do the laundry for the kids he babysat. He unequivocally denied molesting the 4-year-old girl, and said he thought maybe her brother or another baby sitter could have been inappropriately touching her.

Roberts said during his closing arguments that Setlak probably had the girl’s laundry because he had been babysitting her so often. He said he probably still has some of her clothes in her house today.

Prosecutor Infinity Westberg touched on the fact that Setlak still had some of the girl’s clothes during her closing arguments on Wednesday. “Trophy, much?” she said.

During his testimony on Tuesday, Nangle also talked about a post he found on Setlak’s Facebook page when he searched the 41-year-old’s phone.

The post was a picture of an older man holding a young child with the caption that read “go for it, even if it means sacrificing everything.”

Setlak had reposted the picture and captioned the post, “This is terrible. I love it.”

Setlak testified that the post was actually a meme about a Japanese manga series called Fullmetal Alchemist.

Westberg honed in on the contents of Setak’s phone during her closing arguments, particularly the many pictures of convicted sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein.

Setlak said during his testimony that he had the pictures of Epstein because he was fascinated by a powerful financier and his connections.  

Westberg called Epstein’s fascination “the icing on the cake.” She noted how Setlak testified that he liked how “had power over other people.”

Roberts maintained during his closing arguments that the state didn’t have the physical evidence to support a conviction for Setlak.

He said it’s possible that the Hobart man had a connection with the girl because she’s the daughter of his close friend.

Court records did not indicate when Setlak is set to be sentenced. The maximum penalty for Setlak’s five counts of child molestation is 134 and a half years in prison.