Rochester Man Avoids Prison for Child Porn Conviction

Rochester, MN (KROC-AM News)- A young Rochester man convicted of child pornography possession charges has avoided prison time. 

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24-year-old Dalton Berndt was charged with three counts of the crime in April. The Olmsted County Attorney’s Office filed the charges after a Rochester Police investigation uncovered 185 videos and images of suspected child sexual abuse materials on Berndt’s electronic devices. 

Last month, Berndt entered a plea agreement in which he admitted to two of the counts in exchange for the prosecution dropping the third felony count. Berndt was sentenced Wednesday to five months probation. 

The criminal complaint says Berndt gave a statement to investigators that he had been looking at child pornography for a couple of months and that he deleted everything "after serving on a grand jury for similar offenses." 

Rochester Police launched the investigation based on cyber tips involving suspected child sexual abuse materials that were linked to an email address and IP address associated with Berndt.

Court documents say a resulting search warrant led to the seizure of two laptop computers and a cell phone.