WORTHINGTON -- A man who once posed as a 15-year-old boy on Myspace.com was sentenced Monday morning to 51 months in prison for dissemination of pictorial representations of minors.
Shannon Keith Hauser, 37, of Worthington, formerly of Raymond, pleaded guilty to one count of dissemination of child pornography in January after being charged in December.
Hauser had allegedly uploaded more than 160 images of child pornography onto a Web photo site -- accidentally, he said. He thought he was posting the photos on a Web-based e-mail site.
A tip from the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children was sent to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. Following the Internet provider address on the uploaded pictures led law enforcement to Hauser, who had recently moved to Worthington.
Authorities discovered Hauser had a Myspace account under the name Bryan Guptil, in which he represented himself as a 15-year-old boy. In December, authorities went to speak with Hauser, who initially denied the allegations, then later admitted to them. Officers seized a flash drive that Hauser told them probably held 25 movies and hundreds of photos depicting child pornography.
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In court Monday, Nobles County Attorney Gordon Moore asked Judge Jeffrey Flynn to send Hauser to prison for the recommended time.
"He admitted the offenses rather quickly," Moore stated, later adding, "He obviously has some serious issues."
The plea agreement includes sex offender assessment and treatment, something Hauser had requested shortly after talking with authorities in December.
Flynn complied with the state's request, sentencing Hauser for the 51 months -- 34 of them in prison, the remaining 17 on supervised release. Hauser will also undergo sex offender assessment and serve a 10-year conditional release period after his incarceration. He was determined to be a sex offender more than 10 years ago, and has been charged more than once with failure to register as such. Flynn reminded him he would need to register upon his release.
"But you were a registered offender before and that apparently didn't make a hell of a lot of difference to you, did it?" Flynn asked.
He cautioned Hauser that those who don't follow the rules and try to participate in their own treatment generally find themselves jailed for life, something that could happen in this case.
"I, for one, wouldn't have too much objection to that," Flynn added.
