Spirit Lake man sentenced for production and distribution of child pornography

GRAND FORKS – A Spirit Lake, North Dakota, man has been sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for the production and distribution of child pornography, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for North Dakota announced this week.The sentencing, issued by Chief Judge Peter D. Welte of the U.S. District Court, Fargo, followed Johnson Shae Tollefson’s Feb. 8 guilty plea to production, distribution, and possession of child pornography. Welte also sentenced Tollefson to a lifetime of supervised release, and ordered him to pay $12,000 in restitution to four victims.The case came to law enforcement’s attention after the social media website Tumblr reported a user for uploading child pornography images to a private blog on Dec. 19, 2019. An investigation conducted by Homeland Security Investigation and the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation revealed the user to be Tollefson.According to the press release, Tollefson produced the child pornography in Dilworth, Minnesota. While in North Dakota, Tollefson traded child pornography with other Tumblr users.A federal grand jury in the District of Minnesota indicted Tollefson with the charge of child pornography production, and a federal grand jury in North Dakota indicted him with the charge of possession and distribution of child pornography. The Minnesota indictment…
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