By Shereen Siewert
WAUSAU — A Marshfield man who received a deferred sentence on charges of child sexual assault is facing new felony charges after police allegedly discovered sexually explicit photos and videos of a minor on his phone.
Tylyn Hoover, 26, is facing four felony charges of possessing child pornography filed this month in Marathon County Circuit Court and is on a probation hold.
Police began their investigation into new charges in May, after Hoover’s Taylor County probation officer alerted police Hoover likely had child pornography images stored on his phone. Officers searched Hoover’s phone and discovered 16 sexually exploit photos and one video of a girl he was convicted of sexually assaulting in 2017. The assaults happened in December 2014, when the girl was 14 years old, according to court filings, but the case did not conclude until August 2017.
Police say the images were screenshots taken from SnapChat conversations with the girl. The images were then encrypted and stored in a hidden app on Hoover’s phone that appears to the casual observer to be a calculator app. But instead of a calculator, the app is really a photo and video vault that is protected by a unique password.
Hoover also admitted to sending photos of his genitalia to the girl through SnapChat, according to police.
The new charges mean he could face significant new penalties from the 2014 assault case because Hoover entered into a plea deal that would keep him out of prison if he stayed out of trouble and successfully completed probation over a four-year period. Had Hoover been successful in probation, the sexual assault charge would have been dismissed in 2021.
As part of the plea agreement, Hoover was ordered not to have any contact with the girl. Police believe the new communications with the teen victim happened in August 2017, the same month Hoover was given the deferred sentencing agreement and when the girl was 16.
A new sentencing date in the 2014 case has not been set, and a date for an initial appearance on the new charges has yet to be scheduled.
Hoover is being housed in the Lincoln County Jail, according to online jail records.
