Man Charged with 8 Counts of Possessing Child Pornography

A Farmington man has been charged with possession of child pornography when he was an Apple Valley resident, after authorities say they seized images from his computer of children as young as 8 in sexual situations.

Mike Yeng Vang, 22, faces eight counts of possession of child pornography, each of which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. 

Vang remained in the Dakota County Jail this weekend on a $30,000 bond after being arrested Friday on a warrant. An omnibus hearing in his case is scheduled for Sept. 26 in Dakota County District Court in Hastings.

According to the criminal complaint, received information last January from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension’s Internet Crimes Against Children task force that child pornography had been traced to Vang’s IP address.

Officers executed a search warrant on Vang’s home and seized a desktop computer, three DVDs, a homemade central processing unit and an external hard drive.

Police interviewed Vang, who admitted that he downloaded pornographic videos involving children between the ages of 12 and 13. He also told police that he shared the videos.

Some of the videos found on Vang’s computer were as long as 49 minutes, some depicting adults engaging in sexual acts with children, others with children touching one another in a sexual manner.

The criminal complaint lists eight separate videos containing child pornography found in Vang’s possession.