Redwood Falls man sentenced for child porn possession

A Redwood Falls man was convicted in Redwood County District Court last week for three counts of possessing child pornography.

In April of 2019, the Redwood Falls Police Department was contacted by an FBI Special Agent about child pornographic images having been sent and received in the City of Redwood Falls to an address on North Grove Street.

In May of 2019, Redwood Falls Police Officers executed a search warrant at that address. In the dwelling they found Nathan Allen Prechel, age 44. When officers entered a bedroom, they noted a computer was actively downloading a pornographic image at that time.

Prechel stated he sometimes unintentionally downloaded child pornography while downloading batch files, but that he always deleted the offending images. Later investigation showed 17 files containing child pornography on Prechel’s computers.

On July 12, Nathan Allen Prechel was sentenced to, among other conditions, 120 days in the Redwood County jail, up to 25 months at the correctional facility in St. Cloud (stayed for five years), supervised probation for five years, psychotherapy in an outpatient setting, and no unsupervised contact with minors.