MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — A 45-year-old woman has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for producing child pornography of two young girls, the United States Attorney’s Office announced Wednesday.
Donna Mary Zauner, who has no known address, pleaded guilty to one count of production of child pornography on Aug. 1, 2011. She was indicted in April 12, 2011.
In Zauner’s plea agreement, she admitted to working with 52-year-old Alec James Tafolla, of Claymont, Del., to produce child porn. They use two girls who were under the age of 12 at the time. Zauner admitted to taking the pictures with her cell phone and then sending them to Tafolla — at his direction.
According to court documents, a Winona resident, who had previously been in a relationship with Zauner, contacted police on Oct. 6, 2010. He allowed her to live with him in Sept. 9, 2010, but she left his residence without notice a month later. He contacted police because he found a pornographic image of a young girl on his computer.
While investigating in an attempt to find information of her whereabouts, he instead ran across an email account that he did not recognize. Within the email, he discovered the sexually explicit images of a child attached to an email in the account. Police determined that account belonged to Tafolla.
On July 25, 2011, Tafolla was sentenced to 16 years in prison followed by 15 years of supervised release.
