Elk River Man Sentenced for Child Pornography

ELK RIVER -- A St. Paul U.S. District Court judge has sentenced an Elk River man for child pornography.

On Friday, 41-year-old John Kuhnel was sentenced to 17 years in prison and 15 years of supervised release.

In January 2020, Kuhnel was convicted of nine counts of receipt of child pornography and two counts of possession of child pornography following an investigation by the FBI.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, despite being under supervision in 2016 for a previous conviction for second-degree criminal sexual conduct, Kuhnel knowingly received and possessed over 33,000 image and video files containing sexually explicit conduct involving minors.