An Owatonna, Minn., man was sentenced Monday to seven years of supervised probation and 120 days at the Northeast Regional Corrections Center for possessing pornographic work involving minors while a student at the University of Minnesota Duluth.
Michael Thomas Birk, 20, was sentenced by Judge Heather Sweetland in St. Louis County District Court as his mother looked on. Sweetland told the defendant she was balancing his future with public safety. He faced a potential 15-month sentence.
St. Louis County prosecutor Gary Bjorklund and Minneapolis defense attorney Brockton Hunter both told the court that Birk is an intelligent young person of promise, but Bjorklund asked the court to sentence him to 120 days in custody "to get the defendant's attention."
Birk had earlier violated a condition of his pre-trial release, which Bjorklund said he found troubling.
Birk, who has no prior criminal record, coached youth hockey in Owatonna. He created an account on myspace.com and used the name and identity of an Owatonna boy that he knew. He began to chat with males that he believed to be 13 to 25 and sometimes led to the exchange of nude photos.
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The charges were brought after an Internet sting operation conducted by a detective with the Keene, N.H., Police Department and follow-up investigations by an investigator with the Owatonna Police Department and UMD campus police.
The Keene Police Department is part of a Regional Task Force on Internet Crimes Against Children, which has arrested more than 350 offenders from 48 states and 13 foreign countries. One of its detectives, James McLaughlin, developed the case against Birk.
According to the criminal complaint, McLaughlin created a Web site and posed as a 14-year-old boy from New Hampshire. Birk had numerous online conversations between Aug. 25 and Sept. 9 last year with McLaughlin, who he believed to be the 14-year-old.
Birk told the "boy" that he "liked guys 12 to 14 years of age." During online conversations, Birk e-mailed sexually suggestive photographs of nude males.
A search warrant was executed at Birk's UMD dorm room on Oct. 11. His laptop computer was seized and sent to an FBI laboratory, where its contents were analyzed and pornographic images of minors were found.
Bjorklund said none of the images was of children from the Northland.
As conditions of his probation, Birk must write letters of apology to the teenager whose identity he used and to the boy's family. He must register as a sex offender and provide a DNA sample. He is to have no unsupervised contact with anyone younger than 18, except for family members. He must have the approval of his probation officer to access the Internet and must not be in possession of, or use, any pornographic material. While in NERCC he must complete a sex offender treatment program and follow any after-care treatment recommendations.
Sweetland told Birk that if he fails to follow the conditions of his probation, a 15-month sentence could be imposed. But if he follows the conditions, the felony crime will go on his record as a gross misdemeanor.
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Birk said he had no comment when asked whether he wanted to address the court. The court file includes letters that Birk and his parents wrote to Sweetland.
"Someone once said to me that it's not who you are underneath but it's what you do that defines you," Birk wrote. "What I have done is not who I am inside, and given the chance, I would like to show people that. ... since I'm still only a kid and have lots of life to live I am excited at the endless possibilities that are waiting for me in the future, given the chance."
Hunter said his client has been working 60 to 80 hours a week in a factory job and has paid back his parents $5,000 of his legal fees. Birk has been admitted to a college in Chicago for spring semester. His parents told the court that his goal has always been to go to film school.
