A 26-year-old Vadnais Heights man was charged Wednesday with possessing nearly 15,000 files of child pornography, according to a criminal complaint filed in Ramsey County District Court.
Michael C. Nyhus faces 15 felony counts for possessing the porn since late 2011.
The 14,864 images found in Nyhus' computer include girls as young as 1 or 2 posing in sexual positions alone or with men, the complaint says.
An investigator with the Minnesota Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force had been using special undercover software that kept track as someone from Nyhus' address in the 4300 block of Oak Ridge Court was downloading pornographic files, using a "peer-to-peer" program.
Investigator Dale Hanson obtained a search warrant to search that home and its computers on Dec. 1, 2011. In Nyhus' bedroom, chat logs were found on his computer, which showed the user accessing channels including kids'r'us and younggirlsex, the complaint says.
In an interview with police, Nyhus confirmed that he had the peer-to-peer program on his computer and that he used it to download files. He declined to answer questions about pornography.
The child porn files were submitted to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Child victim Identification program. Several known victims of child porn were identified in a video and image files on Nyhus' computer, the complaint says.
Joy Powell • 651-925-5038
