Custer Man Indicted for Child Pornography

RAPID CITY - United States Attorney Alison J. Ramsdell announced that a federal grand jury has indicted a Custer, South Dakota, man for Receipt of Child Pornography and Possession of Child Pornography.

Nathan Frisch, age 42, was indicted in March of 2023. He appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Daneta L. Wollmann on April 3, 2023, and pleaded not guilty to the Indictment.

The maximum penalty upon conviction is a mandatory minimum of five years in custody and/or a $250,000 fine, a mandatory minimum of five years of supervised release, and $100 to the Federal Crime Victims Fund for each count of conviction. Restitution may also be ordered.

The charges relate to Frisch downloading child pornography images from the Internet and transferring them from his laptop to the Google Drive account installed on his cellular phone.

The charges are merely accusations and Frisch is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.

The investigation is being conducted by Homeland Security Investigations and the South Dakota Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. Assistant U.S. Attorney Heather Sazama is prosecuting the case. 

This case 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 the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the DOJ’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children, as well as identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit https://www.justice.gov/psc.

Frisch was released on bond pending trial. A trial date has been set for June 6, 2023.