Chaska man sentenced for possession of pornographic work involving minors

AITKIN — An 81-year-old Chaska man was sentenced Wednesday, Feb. 5, for possession of child porn in Aitkin County.

Guy Willard Blessing was convicted in Aitkin County District Court of two felony counts of possession of pornographic work involving minors.

Blessing was sentenced to serve 30 days in Aitkin County Jail, with credit for two days of time served and a report date of Feb. 23, and for the sentences on both charges to run concurrently. He was placed on supervised probation for five years and is required to remain law-abiding, have no unsupervised contact with anyone under the age of 18 and complete a psychological sexual evaluation. Blessing was also fined of $1,262.

According to court records, on Feb. 23, 2021, law enforcement officers were speaking with Blessing about furnishing alcohol to a minor while he was serving as a substitute teacher at Aitkin High School.

The investigation revealed the substitute teacher befriended a student and had, on multiple occasions, provided that student with alcohol. Blessing was sentenced to time served and was required to serve probation while awaiting the trial for possession of pornographic work involving minors. That case file now states the charges were “dismissed, conditions met or expired.”

While officers were speaking with Blessing about that matter, he admitted to law enforcement he had an interest in post-adolescent young adult men. He said he searched online for porn involving post-adolescent males and saved images on his laptop.

Blessing told investigators he thought the models were between the ages of 18 and 24, but admitted the ages are hard to know since they come from the internet.

That same day, investigators executed a search warrant at Blessing’s home in Aitkin Township and located two laptops. On Feb. 25, investigators sent his laptop and cellphone data to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension for forensic analysis.

Following the forensic analysis of 39,000 files, special agents with the BCA identified 82 images of apparent child sexual abuse showing prepubescent males with genitalia exposed and/or engaged in sex acts. They also identified an additional 2,375 image files and 60 video files of suspected child sexual abuse imagery.

Special agents with the BCA and the FBI were able to verify 16 files that contained known child sexual abuse material based on the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children database of identified child sexual abuse material.

TIM SPEIER, staff writer, can be reached on Twitter @timmy2thyme , call 218-855-5859 or email tim.speier@brainerddispatch.com .