Richard Dean Wilson, Jr.

A Cass County man was charged and will serve prison time for three counts of criminal sexual acts on three children.

According to a release from Cass County, Richard Dean Wilson, Jr. of Walker pleaded guilty in court on Thursday to one count of First-Degree Criminal Sexual Conduct and two counts of Second-Degree Sexual Conduct for acts committed against three separate children. He was sentenced immediately after.

The investigation started around March of 2015 and discovered that Wilson had committed sexual acts against minors.

Law enforcement officers located an IP address that shared programs that distributed images and videos of child pornography. The IP address was tracked to the home of Wilson. In June of 2016, search warrants were issued for the computers at the home where Wilson lived and were found in a locked room. The computers were then sent to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension for forensic analysis.

In March of 2017, BCA found over 20 manufactured pornographic videos on the computers. Videos showed evidence of Wilson having sexual contact with a female child. Other videos show Wilson having sexual contact with an infant.

The videos were time-stamped and created between March 2015 thru February 2016.

Wilson then provided a statement where he admitted that he had created about 20 sexual videos with a now 6-year-old, 13-year-old and a two-three year old who are all females.

Wilson admitted to having sexual contact with all three victims at his mother’s home in Cass County.

Wilson was sentenced to serve 280 months in prison for the First-Degree charge and 168 and 171 months on the Second-Degree charges.

Each of these convictions represented a separate victim and will require Wilson to register as a predatory offender for the remainder of his life. He will be subject to a ten-year conditional release period upon release from prison.

These convictions also mean a future civil commitment as a sexually dangerous person can be pursued, which has the potential to confine Wilson to a secure hospital facility upon release from prison.

By — Destiny Wiggins