Crystal Man Pleads Guilty to Multiple Counts of Producing Child Pornography

ST. PAUL, Minn. – A Crystal man has pleaded guilty to multiple counts of production of child pornography that victimized minor teenage girls in Minnesota and across the country, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Lisa D. Kirkpatrick. 

According to court documents, between April 2022 and September 13, 2023, Dapree Richard Christlieb-Peterson, 22, used internet apps, social media, and text messages to engage minors in sexually explicit conversations in order to entice and coerce them to in engage in illegal sexual encounters with him. Christlieb-Peterson specifically targeted at least five minors between the ages of 12 and 17 years old in Minnesota, Florida, and elsewhere, to create images and videos of their sexually explicit conduct. Christlieb-Peterson knew the minor girls’ ages because the minor victims either disclosed them, or they were apparent on their social media profiles. Christlieb-Peterson enticed and coerced his minor victims to engage in sexually explicit activity with him, recorded it on a cell phone, and then distributed the child pornography he created to others.  

Christlieb-Peterson pleaded guilty on February 4, 2024, in U.S. District Court before Judge Eric C. Tostrud to five counts of production and attempted production of child pornography. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled at a later date. 

This case is the result of an investigation conducted by Homeland Security Investigations and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.  It was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and CEOS, Project Safe Childhood combines federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys David M. Classen and Robert M. Lewis are prosecuting the case.