Yahoo cyber tip

to BCA leads to

case with minors

under age 14

By Fritz Busch

Staff Writer

NEW ULM — A 72-year-old rural New Ulm man faces five felony child porn charges for allegedly emailing himself files including images of a minor performing sex acts last year.

Unconditional bail was set at $50,000, no bail with conditions, June 7 for Ricky Eugene Randall, 12971 Meadow Creek Dr. A Brown County District Court appearance was set for 8:30 a.m. June 20.

According to court documents, Brown County Sheriff’s Office Investigator Andrew Konechne received a referral from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (MN BCA) after they received a cyber tip from Yahoo about an account that emailed suspected child pornography images.

According to the cyber tip, the email address sent himself four video files and two image files. Yahoo provided the suspect’s name as Ricky E. Randall of North Platte, Ne.

Analysts with the BCA issued subpoenas for more information on the account and found a Verizon Wireless recovery phone number. A subpoena to Verizon for the phone umber revealed Randall as the account holder with an address of 12971 Meadow Creek Dr., New Ulm.

Analysts issued summons to Google for account information. The name on the account was Randall.

Investigator Konechne found the sent emails contained the suspected files in the case. One of the photos appeared to be taken in a tractor sleeper cab. Konechne identified the man in the email photo attachments as Randall after looking at his driver’s license photo.

On Dec. 22, 2022, Konechne, Brown County Deputy Eric Schwarzrock and New Ulm Police Investigator Chris Moellenhoff executed an approved search warrant to look for child pornography and devices that may contain it at Randall’s rural New Ulm residence.

When told about the Yahoo cyber tip about emailing himself videos believed to be child porn, Randall said he was working with his pastor to avoid pornography. In addition, Randall said a guy he used to work with sent him some videos but he’s been trying to clean his name and record up. Randall said he moved to Brown County about five years ago and is a truck driver.

Konechne ran Randall’s criminal history and found Nebraska felony convictions from 1971 to 1984 including escape from custody and felon in possession of a firearm. Randall said he, a buddy and two girls went across state lines into Wyoming to buy alcohol and he didn’t realize the girls were under age 14. Randall said he got two years for the convictions.