ST. PAUL  (AP) -- A former computer programmer with the Minnesota secretary of state's office has been sentenced to five years in prison for possessing child pornography.

Forty-year-old Jeffrey Thomas Whitney of Brooklyn Park pleaded guilty in November to seven counts of possession of child pornography.

Prosecutors say Whitney downloaded the images on a state computer while working for a consultant in the secretary of state's office.

According to the complaint, the secretary of state's office contacted the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension last January.

The complaint says the BCA identified more than 1,400 images of suspected child pornography on the computer Whitney used.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

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