A Sauk Centre resident has been dealt a heavy sentence for crimes related to child pornography. Shawn Norbert Kulzer, 32, is to serve a 235-month term in federal prison, after which he will face ten years of supervised release, for coercing minors into producing explicit images. As outlined in court documents, the interactions began on Snapchat, where Kulzer pressured a minor under 18 years of age to send him nude photos according to the U.S. Department of Justice's official website.
In a consistent pattern of behavior, Kulzer admitted in his plea agreement to using Snapchat to entice a second minor to send sexually explicit material. Furthermore, even while on pretrial release, he somehow managed to incorrectly secure another cell phone and engage in similar unlawful interactions with at least six other victims. All this comes amidst a broader federal pursuit to aggressively stamp out the sexual exploitation of children.
His guilty plea, for one count of production and attempted production of child pornography, was entered in U.S. District Court before Judge Nancy E. Brasel. Judge Brasel, reflecting the gravity of the situation, noted Kulzer’s crime as "the nightmare that every parent thinks of when they think of online behavior involving their children," as detailed in the Justice Department's official announcement.
This case is part of a concerted effort known as Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide effort launched back in May 2006, aiming to confront the increasingly pervasive problem of child sexual exploitation and abuse. The program brings together various levels of law enforcement with the goal to better find and bring to justice those who exploit children and to also protect and rescue the victims of these egregious acts. For those seeking to understand the full scope of this program, it’s outlined at www.projectsafechildhood.gov. The investigation leading to Kulzer’s sentence was a collaboration between the FBI, Stearns County Sheriff’s Office, and the Sauk Centre Police Department, with Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Polachek prosecuting the case.
