Charges dismissed against Colfax woman for possession of child pornography
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
MENOMONIE — A 33-year-old Colfax woman has had two felony counts related to possession of child pornography dismissed in Dunn County Circuit Court.
Shelly Lynn Horn, as known as Shelly Lynn Nieman, made an initial appearance on February 13 in Dunn County Circuit Court on two Class D felony counts of possession of child pornography, according to online court records.
Judge James Peterson set bail with a $1,000 signature bond with the conditions that Horn was not to use devices with internet capabilities and to have no contacts with minors.
A preliminary hearing was scheduled for February 16.
The next day, on February 14, the Dunn County district attorney’s office filed a motion to dismiss the charges.
Judge Peterson issued an order to dismiss the charges against Horn on February 15.
According to several news reports, the district attorney’s office filed a motion to dismiss because it could not be proven that Horn had access to child pornography on her cellular telephone while she was in Dunn County since the images had been deleted from Horn’s cell phone.
Complaint
According to the criminal complaint, the Dunn County Sheriff’s Department had received a CyberTipline report from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in May of 2023.
The Wisconsin Department of Justice sent an administrative subpoena to West Wisconsin Telcom for a particular IP address, which reported that the IP address was for an account holder who lived in Knapp named Jeremy Nieman.
Snapchat had submitted the tip about child pornography to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, according to the criminal complaint.
As the result of the investigation, Shelly Nieman and/or Jeremy Nieman were identified as possible suspects.
The CyberTipline report listed four uploaded files with a date of March 27, 2023. Two of the files were videos and two were photographs. As it turned out, both of the videos were the same, and both of the photographs were the same.
The photograph and the video depicted a prepubescent girl, according to the complaint.
Investigators checked St. Croix County land records and noted that Jeremy Nieman was the property owner of a particular Knapp address.
Investigators obtained a search warrant from St. Croix County Circuit Court Judge Micheal. Waterman in May of 2023, and investigators conducted surveillance of the address but could not determine if Horn still lived there or if she had moved.
Colfax
Investigators eventually discovered Horn had moved to Colfax, and along with a Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigations special agent, interviewed Horn in the special agent’s unmarked car.
Horn told investigators she does not have a Snapchat account, and although she had one in the past, she had deleted it a year prior. Horn said she does have TikTok and Facebook accounts, the complaint states.
Horn said it had been a year and a half since she had used Snapchat and provided a passcode for her cellular telephone.
She told investigators she used to live in Knapp with her parents.
When Horn was informed that there were images and a video uploaded from her Snapchat account, she replied, “You have got to be kidding me,” according to the complaint
Horn denied having any knowledge of the child pornography multiple times and was cooperative with investigators.
Search warrant
St. Croix County and Dunn County investigators served a search warrant at Horn’s address in the village of Colfax in October of 2023 and obtained Horn’s cell phone.
An analyst told investigators he would only be able to do a limited extraction from the cell phone, so investigators informed Horn that her cell phone would be sent to Woodbury, Minnesota, for analysis.
When investigators reviewed the Cellebrite reports from Horn’s cell phone, one of the images depicting child pornography from the initial cybertip had been located on the cell phone, according to the complaint.
Cellebrite is a computer software application that allows law enforcement agencies to extract data from digital devices.
