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MN Sex Offender Sentenced for Possessing Child Pornography

MINNEAPOLIS—Earlier today in federal court, a 29-year-old registered sex offender from Woodland Township in central Minnesota was sentenced for possession of child pornography. United States District Court Judge Patrick J. Schiltz sentenced Jeremy Lee Klepperich to 160 months in prison on one count of possession of child pornography. Klepperich was charged on July 31, 2012, and pleaded guilty on October 2, 2012. Because the federal system does not have parole, Klepperich will serve virtually his entire prison sentence behind bars.

In his plea agreement, Klepperich admitted that on June 6, 2012, he possessed one or more matters containing visual depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct. Klepperich owned a computer thumb drive containing approximately 4,270 images and 56 videos of child pornography.

In 2011, Klepperich pleaded guilty in state court in Wright County on one count of possession of pornography by a sex offender. The sentence in that case mandated that Klepperich, whose prison term was stayed, refrain from possessing any drugs, drug paraphernalia, pornography, or other sexually explicit material. On two different occasions (April 27, 2011 and June 7, 2012), Klepperich was arrested by local law enforcement for violating the terms of his 2011 stay of sentence. An unnamed individual informed authorities of Klepperich’s thumb drive among other digital media, which contained child pornography. Klepperich’s criminal history includes a 1997 McLeod County, Minnesota, conviction for sexual penetration of a minor male he was babysitting and a 2009 conviction in Hennepin County for failure to register as a predatory offender.

This case was the result of an investigation by the Minnesota Child Exploitation Task Force, which is sponsored by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistance was provided by the Minnesota Department of Corrections, the Hutchinson Police Department, and the Wright County Sheriff’s Office, which is an affiliate of the Minnesota Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Laura M. Provinzino.

Possession of child pornography is against the law. In addition to prosecuting these cases, the Justice Department is presently funding a study focused on the correlation between involvement in child pornography and hands-on sexual abuse of children. A 2008 study (The Butner Study) published in the Journal of Family Violence found that up to 80 percent of federal inmates incarcerated for possession, receipt, or distribution of child pornography also admitted to hands-on sexual abuse of children, ranging from touching to rape.

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