NEW ULM — A 28-year-old Sleepy Eye man accused of uploading multiple images of child pornography, including minors under age 13, was ordered to register as a predatory offender and complete sex offender programming in Brown County District Court March 20.

David Lee Rodriguez was convicted of felony dissemination of pornographic work-minor under age 13. Five dissemination of pornographic work charges-minor under age 13 were dismissed. He received a stay of imposition. Successful completion of five years probation will result in a misdemeanor conviction.

Rodriguez was sentenced to 60 days in the Brown County Jail, credited with 3 days serve. Huber release if appropriate. He was ordered to complete a psychosexual evaluation with an assessor approved by probation, to be scheduled within 30 days, not possess any pornographic/sexually explicit material and have no access to or Internet use without probation approval.

According to court documents, Sleepy Eye Police investigator Shawn Bohnen was called April 2, 2021, by a Department of Homeland Security agent who identified Rodriguez as a suspect for dissemination of child pornography. The agent told Bohnen his agency received a cyber tip about a device uploading multiple images of child pornography including victims possibly under age six.

On Dec. 30, 2020, The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) received a cyber tip from Kik (freeware instant messaging) about child porn sent from a Minnesota email address. The case file was assigned to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA).

In January 2021, the BCA sent a subpoena to Google, LLC for the email address associated with the account that came back with Rodriguez as the subscriber with the same phone number identified by his father when police asked about it. The BCA sent a subpoena to Mediacom to identify the IP address that was returned to a Sleepy Eye subscriber.

Homeland Security research showed Rodriguez’ address was 410 Main St. East, Sleepy Eye or 310 8th Ave. S.W., Sleepy Eye and six video files met the definition of child pornography.

On April 25, Rodriguez told Sleepy Eye Police he lived at 310 8th Ave. S.W. and his phone number was the same one that police used to talk to him earlier.

Rodriguez refused to provide his email address and said his phone number is on a Verizon account and he is the only one on the plan. He said prior to that, he was on his cousin’s plan but refused to say which of his cousin’s plans he was on. Rodriguez was arrested and transported to the Brown County Jail.