St. Joseph Man Sentenced for Possessing Child Pornography

MINNEAPOLIS—Earlier today in federal court in Duluth, a 28-year-old St. Joseph man was sentenced for possessing more than 600 images and videos of child pornography. United States District Court Judge Donovan W. Frank sentenced Steven Allen Braun to 84 months in prison and 25 years of supervised release on one count of possession of child pornography in connection to the crime. Braun was indicted on September 21, 2010, and pleaded guilty on December 28, 2010.

In his plea agreement, Braun admitted that from an unknown date through October 28, 2008, he possessed visual depictions of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct. The items had been sent via the Internet and were kept on his computer.

Authorities learned about Braun during an investigation of people who used peer-to-peer computer software to share child pornography. On October 28, 2008, police executed a search warrant at Braun’s residence as part of that investigation. There, at Braun’s home, they found the pornographic images on his computer.

This case was the result of an investigation by the Minneapolis Police Department, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Charles J. Kovats, Jr. and Laura M. Provinzino.

The U.S. Department of Justice is committed to combating the sexual exploitation of children, particularly via the Internet. For more information about these efforts, please visit the Department’s Project Safe Childhood website, at www.projectsafechildhood.gov.