Rapid City Man Found Guilty of Child Pornography Charges

RAPID CITY - United States Attorney Alison J. Ramsdell announced that a jury has convicted Michael Raymond Holst, age 48, of Rapid City, South Dakota, of Receipt of Child Pornography, Obscene Visual Representations of the Sexual Abuse of Children, and Possession of Child Pornography following a three-day jury trial in federal district court in Rapid City, South Dakota. The verdict was returned on June 29, 2023.

The charges carry a mandatory minimum penalty of five years in custody and/or a $250,000 fine, a mandatory minimum of five years up to lifetime of supervised release, and a $300 special assessment to the Federal Crime Victims Fund. Restitution may also be ordered. 

Holst was indicted by a federal grand jury in February of 2022. 

Evidence at trial established that law enforcement was alerted after Holst downloaded an image of child pornography off the internet that was later uploaded to his Synchronoss account. The Internet Crimes Against Children Taskforce identified Holst as the owner of the account and executed a search warrant on his home where they seized multiple devices. A forensic examination of those devices found hundreds of images of child pornography and thousands of images of computer-generated child pornography.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the DOJ’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children, as well as identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit https://www.justice.gov/psc.

This case was investigated by the Internet Crimes Against Children Taskforce, South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations, Pennington County Sheriff’s Office, and the Rapid City Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sarah B. Collins and Anna Lindrooth tried the case.

A presentence investigation was ordered, and a sentencing date has not been set. The defendant was remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.