Tim Ryan, tryan@wolfrivermedia.com
Leader Photo by Tim Ryan Christopher J. Ehlenfeldt sits next to his attorney, Paul Zilles, during a plea hearing Thursday in Shawano-Menominee County Circuit Court. Ehlenfeldt is charged with multiple counts of child porn possession.
A Birnamwood man who was due to go to trial next week on nearly 70 counts of possessing child pornography pleaded no contest Thursday to 54 of those counts under a plea agreement with the state.
Christopher J. Ehlenfeldt, 39, had faced 69 counts of possessing child porn and one felony count of child sexual exploitation. The remaining counts were dismissed under the agreement.
Ehlenfeldt initially seemed to be backing away from the plea deal as the hearing in Shawano-Menominee County Circuit Court got underway.
He shook his head and muttered as Judge James Habeck read the charges.
Upon questioning, a visibly upset Ehlenfeldt told the court he was agreeing to plead no contest only because the district attorney’s office “will continue to come after me over and over again until he finally convicts me.”
Ehlenfeldt insisted he did not have access to the porn and did not know whose it was.
After a break to confer with his attorney, Ehlenfeldt agreed to the plea deal without further comment and later apologized to the court for his behavior.
According to the criminal complaint, Shawano County sheriff’s detectives scanning an Internet file sharing service known to traffic in child porn turned up an IP address in Birnamwood.
The complaint alleges that 27 child porn files were listed on the service as available for sharing from the Birnamwood IP address.
The address was eventually linked to Ehlenfeldt, who was making use of a nearby wireless network to gain Internet access, according to the criminal complaint.
A search warrant executed in August at Ehlenfeldt’s residence found numerous child porn video files and images on his computer, according to the complaint.
The videos allegedly show prepubescent children — some younger than the age of 5 — in sexually explicit acts, according to the complaint. One of the videos included an act of bestiality involving a dog.
Ehlenfeldt is scheduled for sentencing Sept. 18 following a pre-sentence investigation.
He will also undergo a psycho-sexual evaluation intended to help determine his level of risk to society.
He is being held on a $30,000 cash bond.
District Attorney Greg Parker said the state would cap its sentencing recommendation at 15 years of prison time, with extended supervision to be argued at the sentencing hearing.
Ehlenfeldt could have faced a maximum 25 years in prison and $25,000 fine on each child pornography count.
Ehlenfeldt is also charged in Portage County with 29 counts of possessing child pornography and one count of capturing an image of nudity.
He pleaded not guilty to the charges after waiving his preliminary hearing Friday.
His next court date in Portage County has not been scheduled.