BROWN COUNTY — A 33-year-old former Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s teacher was sentenced to 54 months in the St. Cloud Correctional Facility in Brown County District Court Tuesday.

Neil A. Kirchoefer of Eden Prairie was convicted of two felony counts of using minors in pornographic work and one count of felony possession of pornographic work. As part of an Aug. 10, 2020, plea agreement, five counts of possession of pornographic work involving minors and two counts of disseminating pornographic work were dismissed.

Conditions included providing a DNA sample when directed and registering as a predatory offender. He was credited with four days served and ordered to report to the Brown County Jail at 6 p.m. Feb. 23.

Kirchhoefer’s attorney Charles L. Hawkins of Minneapolis said there was no evidence in the case that Kirchoefer did anything but view images and he did not entice any of the young men to participate in any of the poses and videos found during the prosecution of the case.

“I want to share my deep sorrow for the shame I caused on everybody involved who was affected by my choices,” said Kirchhoefer. “I just want to express how deeply sorry I am for everyone who has been harmed by what I have done.”

Judge Robert Docherty said he agreed with Hawkins that there was no evidence that Kirchoefer lured or enticed young men to do what they did.

“But someone did, and they wouldn’t have done it if there wasn’t a market for it; unfortunately there is,” said Docherty.

In a victim impact statement, a woman said she was part of a team that interviewed, hired and worked with Neal Kirchhoefer.

“I was very happy to bring a couple to Sleepy Eye that was well educated and very involved with the life of the church to Sleepy Eye,” said the woman. “I was thrilled to see them buy a house across the street from the church. His ability to write curriculum and be effective in the classroom with teens impacted her. She said he had great technology skills and began to work as the journalism instructor.

The woman said Kirchhoefer had library management skills which were needed at the school and by his third year, he was coaching cross country and track and assisting with music ministry.

“I began to worry about the level of anxiety and stress he was under and became fearful of his leaving us,” she added. “But nothing could prepare me for how we would actually lose him.”

The woman said she had to “walk a tightrope” during the case investigation, not revealing his identify to anyone.

According to the complaint, on Nov. 28, 2018, Sleepy Eye Police met with Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s school staff who wanted to report a staff member that viewed potentially illegal images on a school network computer.

A staff member said they saw boys about 12 years old in their underwear on a computer used by Kirchhoefer. Police got a search warrant, seized school computers and retained the Washington County Sheriff’s Office for forensic analysis of the devices including a MacBook Pro, MacBook Air and HP laptop.

Kirchhoefer was immediately placed on unpaid leave after the allegations surfaced.

A Washington County Sheriff’s Investigator searched the computers and found 1,452 images of child pornography, 18 movie files of child porn. It was determined that Kirchhoefer sent links of child porn including videos to others.

On Jan. 14, 2019, 169 images and 27 movies of child porn were submitted by authorities to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children Law Enforcement portal.

Fritz Busch can be emailed at fbusch@nujournal.com.