BISMARCK - U.S. Attorney Timothy Q. Purdon announced that on March 1, 2013, Rodney A. Milner, 52, Bismarck, N.D., pleaded guilty and was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Daniel L. Hovland on a charge of distribution of materials involving the sexual exploitation of minors.
Judge Hovland sentenced Milner to 10 years in federal prison, to be followed by 10 years of supervised release. Milner was ordered to pay a $100 special assessment to the Crime Victim’s Fund.
From an unknown time up until Sept. 2011, Milner used his home computer to send images of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct.
This case was investigated by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) - Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Bismarck Police Department, the N.D. Bureau of Criminal Investigation, with the assistance of the Burleigh County State’s Attorney’s Office.
This case was brought as a part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity
Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Gary Delorme prosecuted the case.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
