Dec. 9—ROCHESTER — A Rochester man was sentenced to serve 10 days in jail after being charged with possessing more than 150 child sexual abuse materials.
Ryan Benjamin Thomas, 27, was charged with three felony counts of possessing child sexual abuse material.
Thomas entered a guilty plea to one count on Sept. 30. In exchange for his plea, both parties recommended a stay of imposition and that the state would cap jail recommendations at 30 days.
Olmsted County Attorney Andrew LeTourneau requested the court follow the recommendations in Thomas’ presentence investigation, which included 30 days in jail.
Zachary Bauer, Thomas’ attorney, argued for no jail time noting that Thomas has a criminal history score of zero and sought help almost immediately after being charged.
Olmsted County District Judge Erin Lindhart Felten accepted Thomas’ guilty plea in court on Monday. She sentenced Thomas to a stay of imposition for two years with conditions, including no positions of authority over minors, no contact with minors except direct family members while under supervision, no using or purchasing sexually explicit material, no frequenting locations where children congregate and no access to the internet without approval. If approved to have the internet, Thomas will need to install internet-monitoring software.
Thomas was ordered to serve 10 days in jail with work release but does not need to enter himself in until after Dec. 26. He must also pay a fine of $1,000.
According to the criminal complaint, Rochester police received a cybertip in July 2021 consisting of 26 videos of child sexual abuse material that were sent to users on Kik. The IP address was registered to an address in northwest Rochester and the phone number was associated with Thomas.
In February 2022, the complaint said, an RPD detective received a cybertip with an additional 18 videos containing child sexual abuse material that were uploaded to Kik in November 2021. The IP address and phone number were the same ones associated with the July 2021 tip.
Officers executed a search warrant at the northwest residence on April 4, 2022. According to the complaint, officers took Thomas’ cellphone.
“On the phone it appeared that Dropbox had been deleted prior to Thomas surrendering his phone to law enforcement,” the complaint said.
Thomas’ phone contained 152 child sexual abuse files. In a deleted file, six videos matched the ones that were given in the cybertip, the complaint said.