GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — New court documents reveal more disturbing details about a sexual predator who allegedly used a jail-issued device to solicit child porn.

According to an arrest affidavit, a convicted sex offender in the Kent County Correctional Facility had his girlfriend send him inappropriate pictures of a teenage girl over a jail computer tablet.

Matthew Thomas Cook, 42, has been behind bars since May after Grand Rapids police arrested him on child pornography charges.

In early February 2022, Target 8 broke the story that Cook had found a way to access child porn while incarcerated at the Kent County jail.

On Tuesday, Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker announced additional charges, including criminal sexual conduct for the sexual assault of a teenage girl that occurred prior to Cook’s incarceration.

In the arrest affidavit obtained by Target 8 Wednesday, a detective wrote that Cook’s girlfriend, Kari Ann Santizo, had sent him through the jail tablet “multiple photos of (the teenage girl) wearing only a bra and jeans.”

“Some of these messages were screened by (sheriff’s office) employees as approved, and Matthew was allowed to view these photos on his jail issued tablet,” wrote Grand Rapids Police Department Detective Curtis Satterthwaite, who noted Cook had been using the jail device since he was incarcerated in May.  

“As an example, Matt asks Kari over jail tablet messages on November 21, 2021, ‘Send those pics of (the teenage victim) now … I need to calm down I need to c-m I need her (sic) … now,'” wrote Satterthwaite.

But it apparently wasn’t until Jan. 29, 2022, that the tablet’s screening software flagged a word in a message sent to Cook.

When Target 8 initially reported on Cook’s alleged activities in early February 2022, Kent County Sheriff Michelle LaJoye-Young told us the tablet’s filter had picked up on the word “dead.”

That prompted concern from the jail’s intelligence unit, which ultimately led to GRPD conducting a welfare check on the teen referenced in the messages.

“During this interview, (the teenage victim) disclosed being raped multiple times by both Matthew Cook (before he went to jail) and … (Kari Ann) Santizo,” wrote Satterthwaite in another affidavit.

When the GRPD detective tracked down Santizo, she allegedly admitted to sexually assaulting the girl, who was 15 at the time.

In one case, the girl told Satterthwaite she was driven to a hotel in Kentwood, restrained, gagged and sexually assaulted by Cook and Santizo.

In another case that occurred prior to Cook’s incarceration, the alleged victim said Santizo sexually assaulted her while Cook was on a FaceTime call watching and directing the activity.

According to an affidavit, Santizo told the GRPD detective that Cook, while in jail, sent a message through the facility-issued tablet requesting that she kill their alleged victim.

“A message recovered from Matthew’s KCCF-issued tablet does show Matthew requesting Kari kill (the alleged victim) on January 29, 2022,” wrote Satterthwaite. “Matthew requests Kari kill (the teen in) several other reviewed KCSD jail video visits between Matt and Kari, and also on messages recovered from Matt’s issued jail tablet. These messages and videos were not flagged by any KCSD monitoring system or employee.”

LaJoye-Young told Target 8 Thursday that neither she nor her staff had reviewed the evidence GRPD referenced in the newest affidavits.

“The files were identified, saved to a file and sent to GR for review as soon as the criminal case was identified,” wrote LaJoye-Young in an email exchange with Target 8.

“I am not privy to any of the statements of fact that were asserted in the affidavits and cannot speak to them being accurate or inaccurate. … I can tell you that if following this case and reviewing actual videos and tablet files, we find that there need to be security-related policy or equipment changes, we will absolutely work through that. We have not been made aware of any security related issues by either the prosecutor’s office nor GRPD,” concluded LaJoye-Young.

The sheriff previously noted the jail’s tablets do not allow inmates to surf the internet, instead offering them a chance to send and receive messages that are monitored by screening software.

“That messaging is to a secured server, and it actually has the ability to flag words that are said as part of the message,” said LaJoye-Young in early February. “Those flagged words are inspected by security staff.”

LaJoye-Young said the public may not realize that inmates have a constitutional right to access communication mechanisms while incarcerated.

Traditionally, they’ve done that by phone and mail.

“Then, more recently, video visitation and, in a number of correctional facilities to include ours, we have now started to use electronic mail. Some family members, frankly, can’t receive a phone call or don’t have a mechanism to receive that kind of charged call, so we allow for messaging,” said LaJoye-Young.

The county’s website includes a description of the tablet and how inmates can use it.

Target 8 asked the sheriff Thursday if Cook and Santizo still have access to tablets, but we have not received a response.

Before Cook’s arrest in May, he already had a criminal history that included convictions for child pornography, gross indecency and criminal sexual conduct.

Cook, a former part-time firefighter in Wayland, was busted in 2003 for downloading child pornography on a fire department computer.

Then, in 2007, he was convicted of asking a sex worker in Grand Rapids to help him lure, kidnap and rape a young girl.

He was still on parole from that prison sentence in May of last year when GRPD found several dozen images of child pornography while examining Cook’s cell phone.

“During the exam, I located over 50 child pornography images/videos in which three of the children involved were identified as child victims through the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children,” wrote a Grand Rapids detective in the arrest affidavit in May.  

Cook and Santizo remain in the Kent County Jail, both charged with possession of child pornography and first degree criminal sexual conduct involving an individual with mental disabilities.

First degree criminal sexual conduct is punishable by up to life in prison upon conviction.