Plymouth Man Pleads Guilty to Possessing Child Pornography

A former volunteer at the Hennepin Technical College daycare facility pleaded guilty earlier today in federal court in St. Paul to possessing more than 600 images of child pornography. Appearing before United States District Court Judge John R. Tunheim, Shawn Douglas Godfrey pleaded guilty to one count of possession of child pornography. Godfrey was indicted on August 3, 2010.

In his plea agreement, Godfrey admitted that on November 5, 2009, he possessed more than 600 images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. In addition, Godfrey admitted he had distributed some images.

According to a related criminal complaint filed in Hennepin County, authorities learned about Godfrey in October of 2009, after tracing information back to him about a computer user who offered to distribute child pornography. On November 5, 2009, police executed a search warrant at Godfrey’s residence and seized a computer on which they found child pornography. In addition to the computer, officers seized compact discs, books, magazines, and other items containing child pornography.

For his crime, Godfrey faces a potential maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. Judge Tunheim will determine his sentence at a future hearing, yet to be scheduled.

This case is the result of an investigation by the Plymouth Police Department, the Minneapolis Police Department, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which is an affiliate agency of the Minnesota Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey S. Paulsen.

The U.S. Department of Justice is committed to combating the sexual exploitation of children. It recently 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.