ST. PAUL, Minn. (WCCO) – Rory Koch, a former Minnesota House worker and former candidate for Ramsey County Commissioner, has been found guilty on 12 counts of possessing child pornography.
Ramsey County Judge Edward Wilson returned the verdict Monday morning. Koch, 40, entered a Lothenbach plea – where the defendant does not admit guild but does not dispute evidence presented by the prosecution. He is also expected to appeal the decision.
In June 2009, the Minnesota Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force received cyber tips from AOL informing them that an individual using the screen name Chadwhite73 may be distributing child porn using an AOL email account.
Later, AOL provided information that the owner of the account was that of Rory Allen Koch of St. Paul. According to the Minnesota House website, Koch is a Committee Administrator for the GOP Caucus.
On Sept. 10, 2010, the investigator obtained a search warrant to search Koch’s apartment on the 1500 block of Grand Avenue for evidence of child porn. Four days later, the warrant was executed and two Dell computer towers were seized from Koch’s home.
Koch, who was present during the seizure, gave an interview and admitted that he received child porn over the internet, according to the complaint. However, he claimed he had not intentionally distributed it and attempted to delete it as soon as he received it.
When shown a child porn photo from his computer, Koch acknowledged that he would likely have child porn on his computers , including images of prepubescent children.
On Oct. 25, 2011, the investigator received a compact disc that contained all information related to the forensic examinations of Koch’s computers. It showed that several child porn images were found as attachments to emails stored on his computer and several images were located on the hard drives of the computers.
Twelve explicit child porn images on Koch’s computer were identified as depicting known child victims of child porn.
Judge Wilson ordered a presentence investigation before Koch’s April 8 sentencing date.
