Apple Valley Man Charged With Child Pornography Possession

An Apple Valley man is facing six counts of possession of child pornography after authorities took computers from his home and found images depicting children as young as 4 in sexual situations.

Jason Allan Schmidt, 39, who lives in the 12800 block of Germane Avenue, is charged with six felony counts of possessing child pornography, each of which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

According to the complaint, authorities from the and the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force: Minnesota began investigating Schmidt last July after tracing computer images to his IP address.

Investigators sent 15 images and 69 videos traced to Schmidt to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children for comparison to known child pornography victims, according to the complaint. A forensic evaluator matched three images and eight videos to identified children.

When authorities interviewed Schmidt during their investigation, he allegedly said that he had pornography involving children who were “pretty young,” according to the complaint.

“Schmidt went on to describe it as young teens and admitted that he has seen some ‘extremely young’ videos and images before,” the complaint says. “When asked to clarify what he meant by ‘extremely young,’ Schmidt stated that it was age 4.”

Schmidt allegedly told authorities that he possessed child pornography and that as much as 5 percent of the images or videos on his computer were child pornography, the complaint says.

He also told investigators that getting caught with child pornography was his “biggest fear,” according to the complaint.

Schmidt is scheduled to make a first appearance on the charges against him at 8:30 a.m. July 11 in Dakota County District Court in Hastings.