Glenwood Man Charged for Allegedly Possessing Child Pornography and Soliciting a Teen Girl for Sex

(KNSI) – A Glenwood man is charged with three felonies in Stearns County after allegedly soliciting a minor for sex and possessing child pornography.

According to the criminal complaint, police were called to a home in Avon for a welfare check after the foster parent of a 13-year-old girl said she noticed a marked change in her behavior and demanded she hand over her phone for inspection. The woman says she saw conversations with adult men on several different phone applications. A conversation was also discovered between the girl and a friend where the girl said she met up with a man she met on a chat app and agreed to perform sex acts with him in exchange for $90.

Investigators say they were able to “identify and locate many of the adult men” who had solicited the teen for sex. As part of the investigation, a Central Minnesota Human Trafficking Task Force member allegedly found a conversation between the girl and someone on the TextMe app. Investigators say they tracked the phone’s IP address and subscriber information registered to 22-year-old Jack McLain Christenson.

The criminal complaint shows in one of the alleged conversations, Christenson asks how old she is, and when she says she’s 15, he still agrees to exchange drugs for sex with the teen and asked for nude pictures in exchange for marijuana.

Christenson was arrested on August 13th. Police say in a Mirandized statement, Christenson admitted to the conversations and getting nude pictures from her. He said he just wanted the pictures and had no intentions of having sex with the teen. Christenson said he knew he should have stopped when she said she was 15. He allegedly said he understood the age of consent in Minnesota is 16 but felt 15 was “right there.”

Christenson was charged with possession of child pornography, solicitation of a child to engage in sexual conduct and prostitution. He is due back in court on September 9th.

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