Sartell Man Sentenced for Production of Child Pornography

A 43-year-old Sartell man was sentenced today in federal court to producing child pornography.

On July 16 in St. Paul, United States District Court Judge Donovan Frank sentenced Dennis Michael Lemke to 360 months in prison and supervised release for life on one count of production of child pornography. Lemke was indicted on July 14, 2008, and pleaded guilty on Jan. 16.

According to Lemke’s plea agreement, he admitted that on April 12, 2006, he did knowingly employ, use, persuade, induce, entice and coerce a minor who was then under the age of 12 to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing visual depictions of such conduct.

According to a Federal Bureau of Investigation affidavit, a search warrant was executed at Lemke’s then St. Cloud residence and authorities seized a computer, electronic storage media and a digital camera. An examination of the computer resulted in the discovery of a large number of sexually explicit images of children. Police also determined that some of the images were taken by the type of digital camera seized at the Lemke residence, and several of the images featured Lemke.

This case was the result of an investigation by the St. Cloud Police Department and the FBI. It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Nathan P. Petterson.

This case is part of Project Safe Childhood (PSC), a national initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, PSC marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about PSC, visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

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