Ex-JCC Counselor Overdoses Before Reporting To Prison: Court

WEST BLOOMFIELD, MI — A Jewish Community Center counselor who admitted to taking sexualy explicit photos of prepubescent boys and posting them on a Russian website overdosed on drugs the night before he was due to report to a federal prison to begin serving a 10-year prison, according to court documents. Matthew Kuppe, 23, was found unresponsive by family members on Wednesday and was taken to a hospital “under suspicion of a drug overdose,” according to a federal court filing unsealed Friday.

Kuppe had been held in federal detention from the time he was arrested in August 2015 until shortly before Thanksgiving that year, when a federal judge released him to the custody of his parents, where he has since remained. Kuppe was to have reported to the federal prison Thursday.

U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn’s decision to release Kuppe to parents’ custody angered the parents of the victims, who said allowing him to spend Thanksgiving 2015 with his family “diminished the profoundness of his crimes.”

Kuppe appeared Friday in court, where his bond was revoked and he was taken into the custody by the U.S. Marshals Service, the Detroit Free Press reported. He is to begin serving his prison sentence immediately.

In August 2016, Kuppe pleaded guilty to a single count of distributing nude photographs on the internet of young boys, including three 5-year-olds he oversaw at JCC camp. Five more serious charges, including producing and possessing child pornography were dismissed.

Kuppe’s bond was revoked Friday, and he was taken into the custody of U.S. marshals when he appeared in federal court Friday. His sentence will begin immediately.

Photo via U.S. Attorney's Office