Rapid City Man Sentenced to 20 Years in Federal Prison

RAPID CITY - United States Attorney Alison J. Ramsdell announced today that U.S. District Judge Karen E. Schreier sentenced a Rapid City, South Dakota, man convicted of Receipt of Child Pornography. The sentencing took place on July 25, 2024.

Tell Logan Cadotte, 33, was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison, followed by five years of supervised release, and ordered to pay a $100 special assessment to the Federal Crime Victims Fund and $12,000 in restitution. Cadotte will be required to register as a sex offender under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act.

In July of 2021, Cadotte was indicted by a federal grand jury for Sexual Exploitation of a Minor, Receipt of Child Pornography, and Possession of Child Pornography. On May 3, 2024, he pleaded guilty to receiving child pornography.

For several years, Cadotte sexually abused a female minor he was asked to babysit. Cadotte recorded the sexual abuse using his cellular phone. When law enforcement executed a search warrant on Cadotte's residence in February of 2021, they located images and videos of the minor female being sexually abused by Cadotte. He also possessed hundreds of sexually explicit depictions of other minors, some of whom were identified by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by the U.S. Attorneys' Offices and the DOJ's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children, as well as identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit https://www.justice.gov/psc.

This case was investigated by the Internet Crimes Against Children Taskforce, South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations, Pennington County Sheriff's Office, and the Rapid City Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Heather Knox prosecuted the case.

Cadotte was immediately remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.