Fridley Man Sentenced for Distributing Child Pornography

A 37-year-old Fridley man was sentenced yesterday in federal court in St. Paul for distributing more than 600 images of child pornography. United States District Court Judge Donovan W. Frank sentenced Matthew Eric Linngren to 180 months in prison on one count of distribution of child pornography. Linngren was indicted on September 10, 2009, and pleaded guilty on December 17, 2009.

In his plea agreement, Linngren admitted sending pictures of minors in sexually explicit poses to an Internet Yahoo group on October 20, 2005.

Following today’s sentencing, Ralph S. Boelter, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Minneapolis Office, said, “Through the Minnesota Cyber Crimes Task Force, the FBI, and U.S. Secret Service continue to investigate these types of predators as they utilize new technology to avoid detection. These investigations continue to be a priority within the FBI’s Cyber Crimes Program.”

The U.S. Department of Justice is committed to combating the sexual exploitation of children. Just two weeks ago it submitted to Congress the first-ever National Strategy for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction. That strategy seeks to strengthens many of the weapons already used in the fight against the proliferation of technology-based sexual exploitation crimes involving children. For example, the federal website established in 2006 as part of Project Safe Childhood, the initial national effort to address Internet-facilitated sex crimes against children, is being relaunched after being improved for better information sharing and crime reporting. The U.S. Marshals Service is launching an operation to locate and apprehend the 500 most dangerous, unregistered sex offenders in the country. And, the Justice Department is developing a national database that will allow federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies to deconflict their cases. For more information about Project Safe Childhood or this new Strategy, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

The case against Matthew Eric Linngren was the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, an affiliate agency of the Minnesota Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, which is funded in large part by federal dollars awarded through Project Safe Childhood. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Richard Newberry and Michelle E. Jones.