Kenosha man arrested, charged with sexual exploitation of a child, 10 counts of possession of child pornography

*Graphic images of sexual crimes involving children*

A Kenosha man faces a minimum sentence of eight years and a maximum sentence of 290 years in a Wisconsin prison if he is convicted of all sex charges filed against him. Ryan St. John, 46, of Kenosha was charged yesterday with one count of “sexual exploitation of a child” and 10 counts of “possession of child pornography.” The first-mentioned sentence carries a minimum sentence of five years and a maximum of forty years. Possession of child pornography carries a mandatory minimum sentence of three years, but the Wisconsin Legislature allows judges to run multiple sentences concurrently, rather than consecutively. This means that a person can be sentenced to up to three years in prison total for conviction on one thousand counts of ‘possession of child pornography’. Some see this as a loophole, and many judges take advantage of it.

According to the criminal complaint:

Detective Deates of the Kenosha Police Department reported that Investigator Anthony LaCombe of the Racine County Sheriff’s Office contacted him regarding an investigation he conducted on the eDonkey network into offenders sharing child pornography. Investigator LaCombe provided Detective Deates with information about his investigation, which led to an IP address.

Researcher LaCombe noticed that while using a computer with P2P software, a direct connection was made to a device with the same IP address, which he calls the suspect device. On Monday, March 25, 2024, Detective LaCombe downloaded all or part of a file from the suspect device at the IP address.

Researcher LaCombe reviewed the above video. He received a partial download of the video, which was 54 seconds long, in color and with sound. The video shows a completely naked adult man and a young child between the ages of 4 and 6. It appeared as if the adult was having sexual intercourse with the child.

Investigator LaCombe has received a subpoena for the IP address of the suspect device. The subpoena declaration revealed the IP address to be assigned to Ryan St. John, the defendant, at 8549 20th Avenue in the City of Kenosha.

Since the target address was in Kenosha, Investigator LaCombe then provided his investigative materials to Detective Deates, who viewed the video described above and confirmed that it contained child pornography.

Detective Deates reported that based on this information, a search warrant was prepared for 8549 20th Avenue in Kenosha. Officers executed the warrant on May 30, 2024. Two adults and St. John were present in the home. The two adults spoke with Detective Deates, while St. John stated he did not wish to speak with officers further.

Detective Deates reported that multiple electronic items were collected as part of the warrant. There was also a small marijuana farm in the basement. One computer found was attributed to St. John. Prosecutors spoke with Detective Deates, who stated that St. John gained access to this computer and provided the password for the computer. Detective Deates also said an adult told officers this particular computer was being used by St. John.

Agent Sheskey analyzed the hard drive on St. John’s computer. Officer Sheskey informed Detective Deates that he had found approximately 39,000 pieces of child pornography on the hard drive. He gave Detective Deates ten files to describe. Officer Sheskey also noted that the username on the computer was “Ryan St John.”

Detective Deates noted that all of the above files legally constitute child pornography. Detective Deates further noted that Officer Sheskey has only examined approximately 5% of the total data to be examined in this case. On June 12, 2024, officers arrested the suspect at his home without incident.

“The Kenosha Police Department would like to thank our partner agencies, the Racine County Sheriff’s Office, Mount Pleasant Police Department and the Wisconsin Department of Justice, Division of Criminal Investigations, for their assistance with this investigation,” KPD said in a written statement. .

St. John will appear in court today at 1 p.m. KCE will be present.