White Earth Man Sentenced to Nearly 25 Years in Prison for Producing Child Pornography on the Red Lake Reservation

MINNEAPOLIS - A White Earth man has been sentenced to 292 months in prison followed by 15 years of supervised release for producing and attempting to produce child pornography, announced United States Attorney Andrew M. Luger.

According to court documents, in December 2020, Ryan Edward Thompson, 34, a.k.a. "Ryan Edward Wayne Townsend," knowingly used a minor in sexually explicit activity to produce pornography images.

Using her school-issued laptop to message the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, the 13-year-old victim disclosed that the defendant began sleeping in her room at night and sexually abusing her. Law enforcement responded and later discovered photographs of a sexual nature had been taken with the victim's own cell phone.

On February 1, 2024, a federal jury found Thompson guilty of two counts of production and attempted production of child pornography. He was sentenced yesterday in U.S. District Court by Judge John R. Tunheim.

This case is the result of an investigation conducted by the FBI, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, and the Red Lake Department of Public Safety. The U.S. Attorney's Office would also like to acknowledge the assistance of the White Earth Nation Indian Child Welfare Services, the Red Lake Nation Victim Services, Fosston Public Schools, Minneapolis Public Schools, and the Family Advocacy Center of Northern Minnesota.

The 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 U.S. Attorney's Offices and the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

If you need suicide or mental health crisis support, or are worried about someone else, please call or text 988 or visit the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline chat to connect with a trained crisis specialist.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Mary S. Riverso and Laura M. Provinzino prosecuted the case.