By Shereen Siewert
A 58-year-old man previously convicted of possessing child pornography will live in Wausau after being released from prison later this month, according to the Wausau Police Department.
Thomas Beer, formerly of Weston, will be living in transitional housing near the Marathon County Courthouse and will be on a highly restricted schedule with time out in the community for work and treatment, police said.
In July 2015, Beer was convicted of six counts of possession of child pornography after a plea agreement that called for dropping an additional 42 identical charges. He was sentenced four months later to five years initial confinement in prison followed by six years extended supervision.
An investigation into Beer’s activities began in November 2013 when police in Virginia discovered explicit images Beer uploaded to the internet, according to court records.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reported in March 2013 that images were uploaded to a cloud storage account from an email address later traced to Beer. More than 2,000 sexually explicit photos of children were discovered in Beer’s possession.
Beer will be released March 31, when his supervision begins. His ongoing address will be updated and available online by accessing the Wisconsin Sex Offender Registry at www.widocoffenders.org.
