A Minnesota man was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for producing sexually explicit images and sending them to a boy, plotting to kill one of his victims and his family and then traveling hundreds of miles with the tools to do so.
Minnesota man gets 30 years for sending porn to boy, threatening to kill one of his victims
His victims lived in Pennsylvania, Illinois and Iowa, according to federal prosecutors.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
October 3, 2024 at 6:49PM
Michael Lee Kurkowski, 28, of Owatonna, was sentenced Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis after pleading guilty on the first day of his trial in February to sending threatening interstate communication and producing child pornography.
Judge Joan N. Ericksen cited “the raw facts of danger” when handing down the sentence, which includes 15 years’ supervised release.
According to the charges:
In March 2021, an 18-year-old in Cumberland County, Pa., told police that Kurkowski had exchanged nude images with him for several years when he was a minor and had refused the boy’s desire to end their online “relationship.”
Later that month, Kurkowski was seen at the boy’s workplace, and he later admitted to police he went to Pennsylvania to find the boy and continue a relationship. He said he knew the boy’s age and admitted exchanging pornographic videos of each other.
Kurkowski was charged in Pennsylvania with multiple felonies a month later, convicted of corruption of a minor and sentenced to less than five months in prison. He also was required to register as a sex offender.
On Dec. 31, 2021, police in Peoria, Ill., heard from a woman who said 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 also had been sending naked photographs of himself to Kurkowski.
The woman said Kurkowski had texted her nephew about plans to kill his Pennsyvlania victim, rape the boy’s sister and kill the victim’s family “in various tortured ways” for “ruining his life and turning him in to the authorities,” according to a criminal complaint.
Owatonna police went to the home of Kurkowski’s grandmother in February 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, spoke of wanting to kill prior boyfriends and their families.
The FBI tracked Kurkowski to a bus stop in Toledo, Ohio. At the time of his arrest, his luggage included 16 heavy flex cuffs, electrical tape, a bottle of lubrication, a Taser, a large knife, rubber gloves, hooded facemasks and a 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 whether he would follow through. He told agents he felt the boy betrayed him by breaking up.
Staff writer Stephen Montemayor contributed to this story.
The settlement reached with Attorney General Keith Ellison also includes three years of monitoring for the Evergreen Acres Dairy, whose employees were primarily immigrants.
