MINNEAPOLIS - A 46-year-old Owatonna man was sentenced on Wednesday to 25 years in prison after being convicted of a charge of producing child pornography involving a young boy and a young girl.
Michael William Sherman was also sentenced to a lifetime of supervised release following incarceration. Because the federal system does not have parole, Sherman will serve virtually his entire prison sentence behind bars, court officials said.
"These cases involve our most vulnerable victims, young children," said U.S. Attorney B. Todd Jones said. "Because of the nature of the crime, they are victimized not only when coerced into performing pornographic acts for the camera, but each time those images are shared with someone else. Harming children in this way is despicable, and this office will continue to prosecute these cases aggressively."
Sherman was indicted in December 2011 and pleaded guilty in January.
According to a plea agreement, he admitted that between September and December of 2010, he enticed and coerced a young boy and girl to engage in sexually explicit conduct.
The images were found on a computer during the execution of a search warrant at Sherman's home. Authorities said they also discovered pornographic images and videos of the two young victims on Sherman's cell phone.
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