Stillwater Man Pleads Guilty to Producing Child Pornography

A 40-year-old Stillwater man pled guilty earlier today in federal court in St. Paul for taking illicit photographs of a girl with his cell phone. Appearing before United States District Court Judge Donovan W. Frank, Shane Allen Werlein pled guilty to one count of production of child pornography. He was indicted on March 9, 2010. In his plea agreement, Werlein admitted that between November of 2009 and February 26, 2010, he used multiple fictitious Facebook profiles to befriend at least two minor females. Those profiles were created as part of a scheme to persuade one of the girls to engage in sexually explicit acts and provide Werlein with photos of those acts. Werlein also admitted to having sexual contact with two girls and using his cell phone to take photos of one of them. He then downloaded the photos to his computer.

For his crime, Werlein faces a potential maximum penalty of 30 years in prison, with a mandatory minimum penalty of 15 years. Judge Frank will determine his sentence at a future hearing, yet to be scheduled.

This case is the result of an investigation by the Minneapolis Police Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Stillwater Police Department, and the Washington County Sheriff’s Office. All four agencies are affiliates of the Minnesota Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney LeeAnn K. Bell.

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.