Rapid City Man Sentenced to Federal Prison for Receiving Child Pornography

Acting United States Attorney Dennis R. Holmes announced that a Rapid City, South Dakota, man convicted of Receiving Child Pornography was sentenced on August 26, 2021, by Judge Jeffrey L. Viken, U.S. District Court.

Jebadiah Swenson, age 39, was sentenced to eight years in federal prison, followed by five years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $11,000 in restitution and a $100 special assessment to the Federal Crime Victims Fund.

Swenson was indicted for the charge by a federal grand jury in August 2020.  He pleaded guilty on December 16, 2020.

The conviction stems from Swenson using the LiveMe social media application between October 1, 2019, and March 7, 2020, to obtain links to child pornography on the Internet.  Special agents executed a search warrant and found hundreds of images and videos of child pornography on electronic devices belonging to Swenson.  The images and videos included child pornography depicting sadism and masochism, sexual abuse of infants and toddlers, and bestiality. 

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the South Dakota Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Heather Sazama prosecuted the case.

Swenson was immediately turned over to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.