As trial starts, Owatonna man pleads guilty to child porn charges, threatening to murder sex abuse victim

On the first day of his trial, a 28-year-old Owatonna man pled guilty to producing child porn and later threatening a grisly, meticulous plot to murder a former victim’s family in Pennsylvania.

Michael Lee Kurkowski entered the pleas Monday in Minneapolis as jury selection was starting in his trial. Kurkowski had been in custody since the FBI arrested him in 2022 as he was traveling by bus to Pennsylvania with restraints, a taser and a knife in his luggage.

Senior U.S. District Judge Joan Ericksen will schedule sentencing at a later date. The counts to which Kurkowski pleaded guilty are threatening interstate communication and production of child pornography. A message was left seeking comment from his attorney.

According to the charges, a then-18-year-old male in Cumberland County, Penn., told police in March 2021 that Kurkowski had exchanged nude images with him when he was a minor and had refused his desire to end their online “relationship.”

Later that month, Kurkowski was seen at the boy’s workplace, and he later admitted to police that he went to Pennsylvania to find the boy and continue a relationship. He said he knew the boy’s age and birthdate, and he admitted to exchanging pornographic videos of each other.

He was charged with multiple felonies a month later and convicted in Cumberland County, Penn., of corruption of a minor and sentenced to 142 days in prison followed by probation. Kurkowski’s probation conditions included a requirement that he register as a sex offender.

On Dec. 31, 2021, police in Peoria, Ill., received a tip from a woman reporting that her 16-year-old nephew had been sending sexual photographs online to a man who identified himself as Kurkowski. She said the nephew told her that a 13-year-old friend of his in Iowa had been sending naked photographs of himself to Kurkwoski, too — at Kurkowski’s request.

The woman said that Kurkowski had texted her nephew that he planned to kill his previous victim and the victim’s family in Pennsylvania “for ruining his life and turning him in to the authorities,” according to a criminal complaint.

The tipster shared graphic, detailed messages from Kurkowski that outlined a plot to kill the victim’s parents, rape his sister and then kill her in front of the former victim.

Owatonna police responded to the home of Kurkowski’s grandmother on Feb. 4, 2022, regarding a threats complaint involving Kurkowski. The grandmother told investigators that Kurkowski, who had been allowed to live at the home while on probation, had made statements about wanting to kill prior boyfriends and their families.

The grandmother said she had driven him to a bus stop in town the day before, thinking that he was traveling to the New Prague/Savage/Shakopee area. But she reported that her granddaughter later told her Kurkowski was on his way to kill his ex-boyfriend and his family in Pennsylvania. The grandmother said that she used to have rifles in the house but her son removed the firearms when Kurkowski returned to Minnesota.

The FBI tracked Kurkowski to a bus stop in Toledo, Ohio. At the time of his arrest, they found items in his luggage including 16 heavy flex cuffs, electrical tape, a bottle of lubrication, a taser, a large knife, rubber gloves, hooded facemasks and a handwritten list of names.

Kurkowski admitted to FBI agents that he planned to travel to the former victim’s residence in Pennsylvania. He had thoughts of harming the boy and his family but was unsure if he would carry out those thoughts. He told agents that he felt the boy betrayed him by breaking up with him and saying he was not in love. Kurkowski reported being very mad at the boy and told agents that he planned to use the flex cuffs in his bag to subdue him.