A Turlock man who formerly coached youth soccer has pleaded no contest to child pornography charges, as well as attempting to commit a lewd act on a child under the age of 14.

Matthew Ryan Paez, who coached youth soccer in Modesto, will serve nearly six years in state prison.

According to Turlock Police Department, a cyber tip led to the investigation into Paez.

Detectives contacted Paez at a home in the 400 block of Meandering Lane and took him into custody last July.

Paez originally was booked on two felony charges: possession of child pornography and distribution of obscene material involving a minor. He is alleged to have uploaded more than 600 illicit images of children to an internet-based platform, and to have engaged in inappropriate online communications with minors, according to police.

Deputy District Attorney Sara Sousa, who recently secured a second-degree murder conviction in the trial of Turlock resident Kelle Anne Brassart, negotiated the plea agreement for Paez.

Sousa told The Modesto Bee that prosecutors amended the complaint during negotiations to include a charge of an attempted lewd act — a violent felony known as a “strike offense.”

“The trade-off was that I agreed to resolve the case,” Sousa told The Bee’s Dean Condoleo. “However, I believed it was appropriate given the conduct and the number of children involved.”

At the time of his arrest, Paez was a coach for a Modesto-based youth travel soccer team. The organization was notified immediately following the arrest. At this time, investigators have found no evidence indicating that any players or local children were directly affected.

Cyber tips are reports submitted to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s CyberTip-line, a federally mandated system for flagging suspected child sexual exploitation online. Electronic service providers, such as social media platforms and cloud storage services, are required by law to report any apparent child sexual abuse material they detect. Once received, analysts review the tip and forward it to the appropriate law enforcement agency, often including IP addresses, account details, and file metadata to aid in the investigation.