Registered Sex Offender Indicted in Federal Court on Child Pornography Charges

 

    Minneapolis  -   A registered sex offender from Minneapolis was indicted by a federal grand jury today on child pornography charges.  Lyle Robert Paton, age 58, was charged with five counts of producing child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography.  The indictment in this case states that between April of 2003 and July of 2006, Paton enticed five minors to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of having that conduct photographed.  The indictment also indicates that in July of 2006, Paton was found in possession of child pornography.         

        A complaint filed recently in a related state court case indicates that on July 7, 2006, a St. Paul police officer responded to a call about a man seen walking into an urban woods with five young boys and a camera. The officer located the children and the man, who was identified as Lyle Paton.  After questioning Paton, the officer returned to her squad car to run a criminal history check on him.  She learned he was a sex offender with two prior convictions.  The complaint states that at that point, Paton and the children approached the police car.  Paton, however, no longer possessed his digital camera.  He allegedly told an officer he had gotten scared and had thrown it into the woods.  It was ultimately recovered, although the memory card, found in Paton’s wallet, was broken.      

The complaint also states that the boys were referred to Midwest Children’s Resource Center for evaluation.  During the course of that evaluation, one of the boys allegedly reported that Paton had been taking nude photographs of them for a period of time.  In return for the boys’ cooperation, Paton had allegedly given them money, food, clothing, and toys.

        Based on that information, the police executed a state court search warrant on Paton’s Minneapolis residence.  That search yielded, among other items, two desk-top computers, a laptop computer, and several digital camera memory cards.  On one of those computers, an investigator with the MICAC Task Force allegedly uncovered four images of child pornography.  The investigator also allegedly found 114 images of child pornography on the memory cards

          Because Paton has a prior conviction for a sex crime involving a child, he faces a mandatory minimum sentence of twenty-five years in federal prison on each count of producing child pornography and a mandatory minimum sentence of ten years for possession of child pornography.  Any sentence will be determined by the sentencing judge.  As stated previously, related charges are also pending against Paton in Ramsey County.       

        This case is part of Project Safe Childhood (“PSC”), a national initiative announced by United States Attorney General Alberto Gonzales earlier this year.  PSC encourages the use of multi-

jurisdictional task forces to investigate and prosecute cases that involve the sexual exploitation of children over the Internet.  Moreover, PSC urges that law enforcement efforts be complemented by community-wide campaigns to assist victims of exploitation and to educate parents, other adults, and children about Internet safety.  According to the U.S. Department of Justice, one in every thirty-three children receives an unwanted sexual solicitation online each year.  One in four children experiences unwanted exposure to sexually explicit material on the Internet each year.  In addition, more than 20,000 images of child pornography are posted on the Internet every week.  

        In this state, investigative assistance in these matters is provided by the Minnesota Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (“MICAC”).  The MICAC Task Force  was created in 2000 through a grant from the Justice Department’s Internet Crimes Against Children program.  The MICAC Task Force is one of almost fifty federally funded task forces in the country dedicated to this issue.   The number of law enforcement agencies participating in the MICAC Task Force reflects the strong commitment Minnesota has made to its children and their safety.  Members of the MICAC Task Force include the Sheriff’s Office in the counties of Hennepin, Ramsey, Anoka, Cass, Clearwater, Crow Wing, Dakota, Murray, Polk, Rice, and Washington; the police department in the cities of Minneapolis, Baxter, Burnsville, Fergus Falls, Hutchinson, Mankato, Moorhead, White Bear Lake, and Woodbury;  the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation; and the South Dakota Department of Criminal Investigation.  Additionally, a number of federal law enforcement agencies have cooperated with the MICAC Task Force, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the U.S. Secret Service, and the U.S. Postal Service.  This particular case is the result of an investigation conducted by the St. Paul Police Department, the  Predatory Offender Task Unit, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and its Violent Crimes Fugitive Task Force, the U.S. Secret Service, and the Sheriff’s Office in Collier County, Florida, with the assistance of the MICAC Task Force.  The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Tracy T. Braun.

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An indictment is a determination by a grand jury that there is probable cause to believe that offenses have been committed by the defendant. The defendant, of course, is presumed innocent until he or she pleads guilty or is proven guilty at trial.