Winona Man Sentenced for Sending and Possessing Child Pornography

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MINNEAPOLIS—Earlier today in federal court,a 57-year-old Winona man was sentenced for sending and possessing childpornography. United States District Court Judge John R. Tunheim sentencedDennis Gale Chase to 292 months in prison, along with 20 years of supervisedrelease, on three counts of transportation of child pornography and threecounts of possession of child pornography. Chase was indicted on May 2, 2011and was convicted on December 22, 2011.
According to the indictment and evidencepresented at trial, Chase transported via a computer on March 28, March 29, andApril 28, 2011 visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicitconduct. In addition, Chase possessed both images and videos containing similarconduct on September 9, 2009, February 17, 2010, and May 4, 2011. The depictionswere downloaded and stored on Chase’s computer, while additional depictionswere stored on external hard drives and on thumb drives.
This case was the result of aninvestigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with assistance from theGeorgia Bureau of Investigations, the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office(Florida), the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, theMinnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, and the Winona Police Department. Itwas prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kimberly A. Svendsen and Laura M.Provinzino.
Presently, the Justice Department isfunding a study concerning the correlation between involvement in childpornography and the hands-on sexual abuse of children. A 2008 study (The ButnerStudy) published in the Journal of Family Violence found that up to 80 percentof federal inmates incarcerated for possession, receipt, or distribution ofchild pornography also admitted to hands-on sexual abuse of children, rangingfrom touching to rape.
The U.S. Department of Justice iscommitted to combating the sexual exploitation of children, particularly viathe Internet. In fiscal year 2010, 2,235 defendants pleaded guilty to federalchild pornography charges, 2,222 of whom were sentenced to prison. In fiscalyear 2009, 2,083 defendants were sentenced to prison on child pornographycharges. For more information about these efforts, please visit theDepartment’s Project Safe Childhood website, at www.projectsafechildhood.gov.