Billings man charged in coercion of minors, child pornography investigation

BILLINGS – A Billings man accused of multiple crimes concerning an investigation into coercion of minors, sex trafficking, and child pornography appeared for arraignment today, U.S. Attorney Kurt Alme said.

Brandon Frank Stricker, 47, pleaded not guilty to a seven-count indictment charging him with coercion and enticement, receipt of child pornography, attempted sex trafficking of a minor, animal crushing and attempted witness tampering.

If convicted of the most serious crime, Stricker faces a minimum mandatory 10 years to life in prison, a $250,000 fine and five years to life of supervised release.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Timothy J. Cavan presided. Stricker was detained pending further proceedings.

The indictment is merely an accusation and defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.

The indictment alleges that Stricker used the Internet, Facebook, and a cellular telephone to coerce four individuals who were younger than age 18 to engage in sexual activity from about June 2018 to about April 2020. The indictment charges Stricker with receiving child pornography by a computer and attempting to traffic a minor girl for commercial sex. In addition, the indictment charges Stricker with creating animal crush videos and with attempting to tamper with a witness.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Zeno Baucus is prosecuting the case, which was investigated by the FBI.

Pacer case reference. 20-46.

If the above case is f interest to your media organization and the community it serves, we encourage you to monitor its progress through the U.S. District Court calendar and the PACER system.

To establish a PACER account, which will allow you to review documents filed in the case, please go to, http://www.pacer.gov/register.html. To access the district court’s calendar, please go to https://ecf.mtd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/PublicCalendar.pl.

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