A 30-year-old former Hanley Falls resident man will serve a 21-month prison sentence after being convicted in Yellow Medicine County on five felony counts for possession of child pornography.
District Judge Bruce Christopherson last week sentenced Scott Russell Brown, who is currently a resident of Milroy, to serve the prison sentence as well as pay a fine of $500. In addition, Brown was ordered to pay $1152.22 in restitution and $82.00 in court fees.
Brown had previously pleaded guilty to five of 10 felony counts of child pornography possession. He was sentenced under guidelines in place at the time of the commission of the crime.
By pleading guilty to five of the charges, Brown reached an offense level that called for a presumptive prison sentence of 21 to 28 months, according to Amanda Sieling, assistant Yellow Medicine County attorney who prosecuted the case.
Yellow Medicine County sheriff’s deputies took possession of Brown’s computer from the apartment that he had shared with his girlfriend in Hanley Falls. More than 1,900 child pornography images were discovered on the computer’s disk drive, according to Sieling.
Authorities in Yellow Medicine County were responding to a tip that they received on Dec. 9, 2008, from investigators with the Marshall Police Department and Lyon County Sheriff’s Office.
Brown was arrested after his employer in Marshall suspected that he was downloading pornographic images to his computer at work. The employer installed software on the computer that allegedly confirmed his suspicions, and he contacted authorities, Sieling said.
Brown had allegedly tried to get instructions to his girlfriend to destroy the images on the computer in his apartment.
Sieling said Yellow Medicine County authorities responded quickly to the tip and seized the equipment.
It was found by investigators that many of the images on Brown’s computer were of victims whose images have been found on other computers in cases prosecuted elsewhere.
Brown, who was represented by Public Defender Greg Holm-strom of Granite Falls, had originally been charged with possession of child pornography by both Lyon and Yellow Medicine counties. The Lyon County charges were dismissed by prosecutors. The images on the computer at Brown’s apartment and those on his work computer were the same, according to the county attorney’s office.
Brown’s employment did not put him into contact with children, and authorities have no reason to believe he created any of the images found on the computers, according to Sieling.
