ROCHESTER — A 54-year-old Rochester man was given five years of probation for possessing child sexual abuse material as part of a plea deal in Olmsted County District Court on Monday Jan. 9, 2023.
Thomas Lee Meyer will serve no jail time but is required to register as a predatory offender and serve 100 days of community service. His plea deal calls for a stay of imposition for four felony charges of possessing pornographic work and dismisses six other similar felony charges.
District Judge Christa Daily also ordered Meyer to attend a sex offender program and barred him from having contact with anyone under the age of 18 or vulnerable adults unless approved by probation, have no access or use the internet without approval and not to hold any position of authority over any juveniles or enter any places juveniles congregate.
Daily did order Meyer to serve two days in jail, but credited him with two days for time served.
If Meyer successfully completes his probation, his felony charges will be reduced to misdemeanors, though the court reserves the right to order Meyer to prison if he violates his probation.
ADVERTISEMENT
According to the criminal complaint:
A January 2019 investigation by the Rochester Police Department found several child sexual abuse images of juveniles ranging in age from 6 to 8 years old in southeast Rochester residence.
Meyer admitted to law enforcement that he viewed thousands of images on his phone and that he had deleted some of them.