Hayfield Man Ordered to Prison For Distributing Child Pornography
Rochester, MN (KROC-AM News) - A Dodge County man with a previous child pornography conviction has been sent to prison for disseminating child sexual abuse material.
Court records indicate 21-year-old Michael Nathan Williams of Hayfield was charged in August of last year after the Dodge County Sheriff's Office was contacted by a special agent with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension concerning a cyber tip. It came from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and involved child pornography reported by Twitter.
According to the criminal complaint, a Dodge County investigator was able to link a phone number from the cyber tip to Williams, who was contacted by the investigator in November 2022. The court document says Williams admitted to the investigator that he downloaded images of child pornography from several websites, and while he denied ever being involved in the production of child pornography, he admitted distributing child sexual abuse material.
A later search warrant was executed for William's Laptop and a number of other electronic devices that were sent to the BCA for review. In June of last year, the criminal complaint says the BCA investigation found more than 2200 images of child sexual abuse material, including some that involved sexual assaults on children who appeared to be infants.
Williams was charged with 17 counts of possession and dissemination of child pornography. In July, he entered into a plea agreement and admitted to a single count of dissemination of child pornography in exchange for the dismissal of the other 16 charges.
He was sentenced this week to 90 months in prison with credit for the 123 days he has spent in jail. Williams will also spend 15 years on conditional release following his discharge from prison.
Court documents indicate the Hayfield man was charged with nine counts of possession of child pornography in December 2022 and later entered guilty pleas to three of the charges. Williams was sentenced to six months in jail and five years on probation for that conviction.
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