A 41-year-old Stillwater man was sentenced earlier today in federal court in St. Paul for
taking illicit photographs of a girl with his cell phone. United States District Court Judge
Donovan W. Frank sentenced Shane Allen Werlein to 360 months in prison on one count of
production of child pornography. Werlein was indicted on March 9, 2010, and pleaded guilty on
September 27, 2010.
In his plea agreement, Werlein admitted that between November of 2009 and February 26,
2010, he used multiple fictitious Facebook profiles to befriend at least two minor females. Those
profiles were created as part of a scheme to persuade the girls to engage in sexually explicit acts
and provide Werlein with photos of those acts. Werlein also admitted having sexual contact with
the girls and using his cell phone to take photos of them. He then downloaded the photos to his
computer.
This case was the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the
Stillwater Police Department, the Washington County Sheriff's Office, and the Minneapolis
Police Department. All four agencies are affiliates of the Minnesota Internet Crimes Against
Children Task Force. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney LeeAnn K. Bell.
The U.S. Department of Justice is committed to combating the sexual exploitation of
children. For more information about these efforts, visit the Department's Project Safe
Childhood website at www.projectsafechildhood.gov.
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